


Happy as I Have Never Been

by ragnarokenroll



Series: Mercury-Hutton King AU [1]
Category: Bohemian Rhapsody (Movie 2018), Queen (Band)
Genre: Alcohol, F/F, Genderbending, Implied Sexual Content, Language, and jane just wants to go home, jamie's just along for the ride, king AU, melina is a disaster lesbian, regina is way too invested in her best friends love life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-29
Updated: 2019-03-11
Packaged: 2019-10-18 15:24:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 33,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17583395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ragnarokenroll/pseuds/ragnarokenroll
Summary: Whilst avoiding everyone else at her own party, Melina meets the most fascinating person she’s ever encountered, in the form of Jamie Hutton. Because, if Melina was going to fall for anybody, it was going to be the one person in the room who had no idea who the hell she is.





	1. i'm lonely but no one can tell, oh yes I'm the great pretender

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, this is the first multi-chapter fic I’ve ever written, let alone uploaded anywhere so I’m not expecting it to be any kind of a masterpiece. This story takes place in some weird alternate universe that’s somewhere in between the borhap canon and real life. Borhap without the weird homophobic angle, if you will.
> 
> Lmk if I missed anything in the tags, and feel free to leave criticism. I welcome anything that will help me improve! Have a nice day!!
> 
> *chapter titles from freddie's solo songs and story title from a letter freddie wrote to jim

So Melina admits she may have gone a bit too over-the-top after the rest of her band had abandoned her at her own party. But really, what else was there to expect when you saw someone dressed in a giant overflowing cape lined with faux fur and a King’s crown bigger than their head? The outfit called for some melodrama.  
  
However, at some point in the night, Melina had taken off the grandiose crown and cape combination, or rather, someone had yanked it off her in the heat of the moment. It was too late in the night to worry over such details. Or was it early in the morning at this point?  
  
Regardless, the party was still going strong. Strangers were infesting every corner of the house, which was quite a feat, given the sheer amount of space Garden Lodge seemed to inhabit. However, there was a single woman sitting in one of the chairs tucked into the corner, not engaging with anyone else in the room. Naturally, this was the person Melina felt most drawn to.  
  
“You seem to be a bit lost,” was her introductory line, as she stole a chair next to the young woman, angling herself to get a better look. The woman looked to be around Melina’s age, give or take a few years. And damn if she was not exactly Melina’s type as well. Dark brown hair that fell to her chin in a messy wave, and deep dark eyes complimenting her rounded face.  
  
“Yeah, well. This isn’t exactly my scene,” the woman began in a thick Irish accent. “My friend invited me, and told me that ‘when Melina Mercury throws a party, you don’t ask questions,’ but I still have so many.” The woman looked around the room in a mixture of distaste and curiosity.  
“Such as,” Melina waved her hand, intrigued at this woman’s candor.  
  
“Uh, first of all, who is Melina Mercury?” She laughed, and Melina tilted her head in confusion. Did this woman mean, like, in a deeper psychological sense? As in, who is Melina Mercury behind the larger-than-life façade? Or did she actually have no idea who she was talking to, and genuinely thought Melina was just another party guest? Melina actually felt a little bit offended. “I mean, I assume she’s probably some big actress or singer or such, with a name like Mercury and a house like this but I’ve never heard of her.”  
  
Melina almost didn’t process the statement, with how enamored she was at the Irishwoman’s lilt. It was much warmer and friendlier than Paula’s similar accent. But after a second, she laughed. The woman gazed at her curiously.  
  
“She’s a singer. The lead singer for King. The rock group? You’ve never heard of them?” Melina asked, shaking her head. It had been almost five years since this was an issue for her.  
  
The other woman shook her head. And okay, not knowing who Melina was is one thing. Not knowing _King_ on the other hand…  
  
“I’m sorry, no. Maybe if I heard a chorus to one of their songs?” The woman suggested.  
  
“Uhh… _we will, we will, rock you_ …” Melina began to sing, quiet enough so that none of the other party guests heard her. The woman shook her head. “ _Can anybody find me somebody to love?_ ” Another headshake. “ _Bum bum bum… another one bites the dust. Another one bites the dust?_ ” She even added the iconic baseline. The other woman began to laugh as she shook her head. “ _Mama, oohh, didn’t mean to make you cry_?”  
  
“Not ringing any bells, sorry. Maybe, they’re just not as popular in Ireland? And I’ve never really been into rock anyways. You have a lovely voice, though.”  
Melina stared at this woman in a daze, entirely lost for words.  
  
“…thank you. What did you say your name was, again?”  
  
“Jamie Hutton,” she said with a smile. “And yours?”  
  
Melina just laughed a disbelieving laugh. She needed to answer, but she would feel incredibly stupid if she were to tell this woman the answer to her question. And she wasn’t sure how it would have landed, what with Jamie’s seeming distaste with the idea of excess wealth and partygoing.  
  
“Meherokh.” The name had tumbled out of her mouth in a panic, knowing her silence was growing uncomfortable. It wasn’t even what she meant to say, even though it was technically true. Her eyes widened in shock as she reached a hand towards her mouth.  
  
“Is it actually?” Jamie teased. “Because you don’t look so sure.”  
  
“Yes, it is. I’m just so used to the nickname my friends call me because… well. Meherokh.” She said her name with no other explanation, simply adding an exaggerated accent, sure that the other woman would get her point.  
  
“In that case, my name is actually Saoirse Hutton. But I go by Jamie because… well. Saoirse.” Jamie said in the same voice as Melina, only thickening her already very apparent Irish accent instead. “Anyways, you seem to be uninterested in the party as well if you’re hanging out here.”  
  
She gestured around at the bland, quiet corner the two were sitting in.  
  
“Not… disinterested in the party. More like, hiding from certain people.” Which was a half-truth. She craned her neck as she spoke. She was, indeed, trying to avoid Paula fucking Prenter from talking to her right now. But she was also trying to play down how the pretty woman in the corner was the most interesting person at this entire shitshow she was hosting.  
  
“Which people? Maybe I can be a lookout. Don’t want anybody disturbing this peace and quiet.”  
  
Melina’s eyes scanned the room, only taking a couple of seconds before spotting Paula. She was leaning in close to another woman, her body language screaming that she was interested, but her eyes were scanning the room. Presumably for Melina. And then they made eye contact.  
  
“Shit. She spotted me.” Melina said under her breath, turning back around to give Jamie an apologetic look. Jamie just shrugged in response as she watched a woman walk towards them, presumably the same person Meherokh was worried about.  
  
“Well, there goes that idea. She’s not hurting you or anything, right?” Jamie’s voice suddenly turned serious.  
  
Melina laughed.  
  
“No, she couldn’t hurt me if she tried,” Melina meant it in the most literal sense. “She’s just… like a newborn puppy. Fun to play with but after a few hours you just want to be left alone, and she keeps humping your leg. Not getting the hint.”  
  
“I had a girlfriend like that once. I had to break up with her three separate times, can you believe?” And for a single moment, Melina forgot about Paula and praised all the gay gods out there that this beautiful woman was also a lesbian, or at least into women. But then Paula stepped into her field of vision and spoiled the moment.  
  
“Hey, why are you hanging in the back?” Paula asked with mock-concern. “There’s plenty of people still here to see you. You don’t want to be hanging around with the nobody’s over in the corner," she turned to Jamie. “No offense.”  
  
“None taken,” Jamie replied, her face scrunched up in a way that showed that there clearly was at least a little bit taken.  
  
“I’ll be there in a minute, Paula.” Melina gave the other woman her winningest smile. “Just needed to get my energy back up. This has been a hell of a party.”  
  
“Of course, only the best for you,” Paula smiled back at her, placing a hand on her shoulder before walking back into the huddled masses. Melina and Jamie both sat in silence as they watched her retreating form.  
  
“So how long has that been a thing?” Jamie asked, breaking the silence.  
  
“Me and Paula?” Melina asked with a shocked laugh. “Oh no, it’s not like that. It’s complicated but I am definitely not dating her.”  
  
“Oh. She just seemed really into you, that’s all. She looked like she was going to get on her hands and knees at any second and worship the ground you walk on. Bit unnerving, actually.”  
  
Melina laughed at the entirely-too-accurate description.  
  
“Oh, believe me, I know she’s into me.” Melina made a motion to toss her hair back, before remembering that she had shorn most of her long locks off the night prior. Instead, she ran her hair through what was left, which was, admittedly not much. “Doesn’t mean she cares about me, though.”  
  
“Very wise.” Jamie noted. “It’s good to know the difference. So are you going to tell me which one is Melina or am I going to have to guess?” Jamie reverted the conversation back to the original topic from before.  
  
“I’d love to see you guess first,” Melina said, both because it was true and because she was stalling for time, trying to figure out how to break the news. Jamie hummed.  
  
“Well, whoever she is, she’s not living up to the hype. Everyone in this crowd seems to blend together.”  
  
Melina certainly agreed, but it was interesting to know how an outsider saw everything. Each person was wearing outrageous clothes, and some had forsaken the idea of clothes altogether, thus creating the effect that no one was actually doing anything all that outrageous. She looked down at what was left of her outfit, a glorified black bra and leather pants, and sighed.  
  
“At least give me a hint. Is she in the room right now?” Jamie asked when she noticed that she was not getting a response.  
  
“Yes.” Melina said without hesitation.  
  
“Okay, second hint. What is she doing? Is she dancing? Singing? Whatever that is?” Jamie nodded her head over to a couple in the middle of the dancefloor. The younger man had his legs wrapped around the older man’s shoulders and was doing sit ups. Jamie and Melina both abandoned the conversation for a moment to watch the pair.  
  
“Not that,” Melina confirmed after a moment. “She’s talking.” Jamie nodded, biting her lip in concentration as she scanned the room. Melina found it very distracting.  
  
“I assume it’s not the person your friend is talking to,” Melina twisted her head to see who Jamie was referring to, even though she already knew the answer. The woman who Paula was talking to was a tiny blonde woman who seemed very passionate about whatever the topic of the conversation was. However, Paula seemed to notice Melina’s eyes on her and began frantically kissing the startled woman, who presumably only wanted to talk. Melina rolled her eyes.  
  
“No, it’s not her. I’d like to think Melina Mercury has a little more self-respect than that.” Melina said, though she took pity on the blonde. She, too, had been on the receiving end of one of Paula’s impulsive kissing sprees. Truly, the woman needed to learn to keep it in her pants. And coming from Melina, that was just sad.  
  
“Well, there don’t seem to be too many people at this party who are just talking.” Jamie pointed out.  
  
“You are.” Melina pointed out, trying to offer the other woman a hint.  
  
“And you.” Jamie said, seemingly still not getting it. Melina hummed in agreement, leaning forwards to communicate that she was trying to make a point. “Just tell me!” Jamie cried. “I’m never going to guess.”  
  
Melina held her hands out, trying to come up with an appropriately dramatic reveal and pose combination. But before anything came to mind, Paula stood up on Melina’s piano (damn her!) and called out for everyone’s attention.  
  
“Everyone! Melina has agreed she’s going to sing for us!” The audience broke out into rapturous applause, looking around the room for their goddess of the night.  
  
“Melina did not agree to sing for us,” Melina muttered under her breath, so that Jamie barely caught what she was saying.  
  
Paula then, while still standing on Melina’s damn piano, gestured her arms out wide to where Jamie and Melina were sitting. All eyes turned to the embarrassed couple. Jamie’s eyes widened in panic and Melina’s just rolled into the back of her head.  
  
“Tadah!” Melina cried, standing up with a flourish, her back to the crowd, focused only on Jamie, hoping she would see the humor in things.  
  
“You? You’re… oh!” Jamie seemed at a loss for words. “Oh, that makes sense.” She said, much more quietly.  
  
Melina’s shoulders sagged.  
  
“I’ll come back.” She promised. “I don’t think that Paula very much liked me putting more than ten seconds of attention into someone who isn’t her.”  
  
“You should probably tell her to fuck off.” Jamie suggested, her voice in a whisper now that she knew others were looking at her. Or, looking at Melina, more accurately. Melina laughed at that, even though Jamie didn’t mean it as a joke, and strode over to the piano.  
  
“Requests?” Melina called to the crowd, and suddenly a thousand voices rang out, song titles mashing together into an unpleasant roar that was impossible to distinguish. Jamie did not move from her spot, but shifted onto her knees in order to stand a bit taller, and see over the gathering crowd.  
  
Melina just laughed at the noise, and shrugged her shoulders, beginning to lightly play the piano keys, seemingly in a trance. Jamie noted that she seemed to be playing fairly accurately for someone who had presumably drank a lot throughout the night. She only had a couple of seconds to ponder this, before Melina opened her mouth.  
  
And then she began singing.  
  
And for a single moment in time, everything fell away. The rowdy crowd all seemed to freeze for this singular moment, and just listened. Melina paid them no mind as she continued playing her piano, entirely in her element.  
  
When she reached the chorus, people in the crowd began singing along. But the spell was not broken. There were seemingly hundreds of voices singing in unison but somehow, Jamie could still hear Melina underneath it all. Everybody was still under her command.  
  
And Jamie was transfixed. Suddenly, she got it. How this quiet, unassuming woman that she had talked to was able to hold the world in the palm of her hand. Why you really weren’t supposed to ask questions when Melina Mercury invited you to a party. And she couldn’t stop herself from applauding along with the crowd when the song ended.  
  
Melina stood up from her piano seat, and mock bowed. When people began chanting for an encore, she just shook her head.  
  
“I’m sorry, lovies! If you want to hear more, you’re going to have to go to a concert. And I promise you, it’ll be much more entertaining than whatever that was.” She flicked her wrist absent-mindedly at the piano.  
  
Soon, the partygoers returned to their merrymaking. Melina waited until most of them took their eyes off of her and returned back to where Jamie was sitting, looking shell-shocked.  
  
“So, is that King? Is that what your band sounds like?” Jamie asked, breaking the silence.  
  
“Oh, heavens no. That was a Sharon John number. The two of us are such good friends. Don’t tell me you haven’t heard her either?” Jamie shook her head, still looking lost.  
  
“Well, whatever it was. I really liked it. You were very good.” Jamie felt that this was a bit of an understatement, but she didn’t know what else there was to say about it. Besides, Melina must know how good she is, she had hundreds of other guests telling her the same thing.  
  
“Thank you.” Melina said, seemingly genuine. “Good to know I’ve got the Jamie Hutton approval.”  
  
“So, Melina Mercury, can I ask you another question?” Jamie requested, trying to insert a little more confidence back into her voice.  
  
“Go for it.” Melina leaned back into her seat.  
  
“You are so talented. I’ve only heard you for a minute or so and I can tell. God know what you’re like with a full crowd and band behind you. So why are you surrounding yourself with a bunch of idiots? You’ve got, what was her name, Paula? Running around trying to get your attention like you’re her mother. And everyone else is just,” she paused. Melina turned to follow her eyesight and saw that two drunk guests were hanging dangerously off the balcony. “Everyone else is that.”  
  
And that was the real question, wasn’t it? Melina knew the answer, as much as she liked to pretend she didn’t. Everyone in her life was leaving her. For families, loving husbands with 2.5 children and picket white fences. Something Melina could never have, even if she had wanted it. And then there was Mark, who wouldn’t even acknowledge her anymore. Melina was terribly alone, and she hated the feeling. But to admit it aloud felt almost childish. As if she couldn’t be left to her own devices for the few weeks King were not recording albums or touring without sulking like a petty child. The very thought that Melina Mercury was even capable of feeling the gaping loneliness she felt in her chest seemed preposterous to acknowledge.  
  
“That’s a very long story,” Melina said instead.  
  
“Well, if you’d like to get out of here… maybe get a drink somewhere a little bit quieter. I’d love to hear all about it.” Jamie suggested.  
  
“Leave my own party?” Melina asked, placing her hand to her chest as if the suggestion alone was scandalous.  
  
“Exactly. It’s your own party. You make the rules. And you don’t owe any of these people. Anything.” Jamie said, fiercely.  
  
Melina considered the words carefully.  
  
“Lead the way.”


	2. you really are the greatest show in town

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which everyone is a bit too interested in this mysterious Jamie girl

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello again!!! I had a few chapters written out before finally deciding to publish this so that's why I could update this fast, it'll probably slow down a bit in the future. 
> 
> Thank you for the super nice comments on the last chapter, it was more than I was expected, and I hope you enjoy this chapter as well!

“You seem distracted today, Mel. What’s up?” Brianna asked as she set her trusty Red Special down gently onto the floor, shaking her hands out to release the tension.

All signs had pointed to today’s rehearsal going smoothly. Melina had walked through the door looking more invigorated than she had in months. She had brushed off all of her band mate’s teasing with a grin and was happily humming away to herself as everyone set up. But once they had actually started playing the music, it was clear that Melina’s mind had wanted to focus on something else.

“Well, I thought it was obvious,” Jane spoke up, her bass guitar still around her shoulder as she plucked idly at it. The three other women stared at the bassist for a moment, but it was clear Jane did not intend to elaborate.

“Do enlighten us, Deacy,” Regina teased as she removed her hair tie, letting her golden locks fall down her shoulders, now that she didn’t have to see through her hair to get to the drums.

“Someone seems to have finally caught Melina’s eye,” Jane said simply, finally removing the bass from her shoulders.  
  
Regina was about to swipe at Jane for taking the piss, but stopped when she looked at Melina. If the blush on her face didn’t give it away, the fact that she was stammering nonsense denials certainly did.

“No way!” Regina cried, striding over to wear Melina was standing. “Who is she? Do we know her? What’s she like?”

“Alright, calm down Regina,” Brianna ordered the unruly blonde. “It’s not that big of a deal.”

“Yes, it is, Brianna,” Regina cried. “Melina and Mark were already dating when the band got together. And that was the only person Melina was seriously into. And this is the first person Melina is like… for real, for real into. Because it’s a girl this time! It is a girl, isn’t it?” She turned to Melina when she asked the last part. Melina just nodded, annoyed. “Yes! In all the years I’ve known you, I’ve never seen you pine. As your best friend, I demand to know everything.”

“After all that, I’ve decided that Deacy is actually my best friend,” Melina announced, taking a big gulp from her water bottle. “And Regina, may I remind you. You are practically a married woman with a child. Not a teenage girl at a slumber party. This should not be as interesting to you as it is.”

“Do I at least get a name?” Regina was not the least bit upset at Melina’s jab. Melina looked at her for a long moment.

“Jamie.”

“Well, she must have a last name,” Regina insisted. The two did not notice that both Jane and Brianna had pulled seats from the studio booth and were happily watching this entire exchange go down, both interested in Melina’s new love interest, but not nearly at the level Regina seemed to be at.

“Yes, she does. And I’m not going to tell you what it is because I know you’ll do something stupid like track her down in the phonebook and go to her house. I know your type, Taylor,” Melina accused, pointing her finger.

“If you know my type than you should be used to me at this point and should just give me what I want. Tell me. What is she like? Who has the great Melina Mercury finally fallen for at last?” Regina asked, waving her hands as if imagining this were a news headline.

“Any detail I give you is another clue for you to be able to find her, and I’m hesitant help you in any way,” Melina shot her down.

“God, Melina, I’m not asking for her credit card information. I just want to know, is she nice? Tall? Funny? Just give me some basic information here,” Regina sighed, turning to the other two band members as if they would understand where she was coming from.

“She’s pretty,” Melina insisted. “Dark hair, brown eyes. Also likes cats. Thick Irish accent. Nine other siblings.”

“Which would make sense with her being Irish,” Jane piped up.

“So when do we meet her?” Regina insisted, ignoring the last comment.

“Oh no, I am not having you scare her off. She is a nice and normal girl. She doesn’t need any of your… nonsense,” Melina accompanied the last word with a dramatic hand wave, gesturing to Regina’s whole body, and drum set.

“Mate, I hate to break it to you but if you haven’t scared her off, there’s not a ton that I could do that would be worse,” Regina put a hand on Melina’s shoulder.

“She could always meet Jane first,” Brianna suggested. “Like a dip into the pool instead of a terrifying plunge into an icy river.”

“Very poetic, Brianna, but I have best friend dibs,” Regina placed a hand over her heart as if she were reciting a pledge.

“I thought we already established that I was the best friend. And I think- ” Jane said.

“What are we all talking about?” Paula asked, as she entered the room, cutting Jane off from whatever else she was going to say.

“How to kill nosy managers and make it seem like an accident so we don’t get blamed,” Regina said without hesitation, her excited demeanor slipping away in an instant. Paula ignored Regina entirely and angled herself so that she was facing Melina fully. Regina flipped her off behind her back. Melina had to bite her lip to stop herself from laughing, accidentally revealing her teeth in full.

“We just finished rehearsal. We weren’t talking about anything important,” Melina explained, being technically entirely true without actually saying anything. If she thought Regina was a nightmare to talk to about Jamie, she could not begin to imagine what Paula would be like. She’d also want to track the poor girl down, but less for research purposes but for reasons that tended to learn more towards murder.

“Oh good, then can you and I talk about something? If you all are done,” Paula gave them all a cheery smile, which none of the other members returned. “I wouldn’t want to interrupt rehearsal.”

“I can’t stop you,” Melina shrugged, pulling her red jacket back on as the others did the same. Regina made a beeline for the exit, not the least bit interested in whatever Paula had to say about anything. Brianna and Jane followed her at a slower pace.

“No, you can’t,” Paula agreed. “Melina. Where did you go after the party? You were sitting in the corner all alone and then next thing I know you weren’t there. Nobody could find you. I was so worried, something could have happened to you.”

Regina stopped in her tracks, her hand still holding the door open. Brianna, not looking up, crashed straight into her back and Jane nearly did the same. Regina held a finger to her mouth and crouched down behind the recording booth, trying to hear Melina’s response. Brianna rolled her eyes but, Regina noticed with satisfaction, crouched down as well. Jane followed suit, making sure the door Regina left open was shut with a satisfactory slam, creating the illusion that the others had left the room.

“First of all, Paula. I have two lovely parents that are still alive. I go around their house to have tea occasionally. I do not need you to be my second mother. It was my party and I had the right to go wherever I chose. Second, I was not sitting all alone in a corner. I was talking to someone. And when the party became too loud to hear them, we both went some place quieter.”

“I bet it’s the girl!” Regina whispered in excitement as Brianna and Jane shushed her.

“Melina, it’s literally in my job description to worry about you, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. I’m not trying to be your mother, I just want to take care of you and make sure you’re safe. And you don’t have to hide from me,” Paula insisted.

“Hide from you?” Melina repeated in confusion.

“I could tell you were into her. It was clear as day. You don’t need to lie and say that you left to talk to her. I’m never going to judge you for having sex. It’s perfectly natural. I’ve seen you do it.”

“What the fuck,” Regina mouthed in disgust and confusion. Brianna and Jane didn’t seem to have anything to say to that other than nodding their heads.

“I have no interest in hiding who I have sex with and I think you know that. If I fucked her, I would say so.” Melina turned away from Paula and began walking towards the exit. “And let me make one thing clear." She did a full 360. “It is in your job description to manage _the band_. You should care about the well-being of _the band_. And what I do in my own home has nothing to do with the band or the music. So, it is not any of your concern.”

“When are you going to understand that you are the band?” Paula asked as if she were talking to a particularly frustrating toddler. “Sure, everyone else is good. But good does not mean irreplaceable. You really think anyone would notice if Jane was suddenly switched out for some other woman with dark hair? But you, Melina. You ARE King. You write half the songs. You’ve got a voice to die for. You play more instruments than everybody else in the group combined. You really think anyone would care about King’s music the second you left?”

Regina, Brianna and Jane were still crouched down, none of them moving a muscle. Brianna’s eyes were wide as she mentally tried to will Regina to not do anything stupid. Jane didn’t seem too fazed, her face remained blank with a single eyebrow raised in the air. She didn’t take it too personally, seeing as only half of what Paula was saying was true in the first place. She was just saying what she thought Melina wanted to hear.

“Tell us how you really feel, Paula,” Regina muttered, but did not, to Brianna’s pleasant surprise, charge back into the room and try to deck Paula with one of the spare chairs. “You guys wouldn’t hold it against me if I killed her later?” Regina hissed instead. Brianna and Jane both shushed her as they tried to hear Melina’s response.

“Do you want me to slap you?” Melina asked, sounding deathly serious. “Because I will. Don’t ever say that to me again. Those three girls are some of the most talented in the industry and I would be nowhere without them. And they are everything to me. You, my dear, are not.” The threat hung in the air, no one daring to even breathe for several moments.

Regina seemed to calm down a bit after hearing Melina’s response.

“Well, at least one of them has some common sense,” she whispered, trying to make a joke, but the other two girls could see that she was genuinely touched by Melina’s rant. Paula, on the other hand, seemed to know she had gone too far.

“Melina, I’m sorry. I really didn’t mean anything of it. Of course, I wasn’t suggesting that you fire any of the band. That would be stupid of me. I just wanted you to know how important you are,” she tried to smooth things over.

“I know who I am, and I know what I’m worth. If I need reminding in the future, I’ll be sure to ask. Until then, stay in your lane.” Melina’s tone was icy, sounding as if she was close to snapping at any second. Regina thought that if Paula had any common sense in her stupid brain, she’d back down now.

“Of course. You’re right. It’s my fault for worrying.” Paula sounded pathetic, as if she were some kind of wounded animal.

“What a fucking kiss-ass,” Regina whispered so that the other two couldn’t hear and shush her again.

“Glad to know we agree,” Melina said, before turning back around and heading for the exit. The three girls realized that Melina was going to see them and began to panic. They scrambled around trying to get off the floor, but did so at the same moment, crashing into one another and falling back down.

“What the hell?” Melina cried, running over to where the rest of her band were collapsed into a pitiful pile, rubbing at their heads. “What are you all doing?”  
Nobody seemed to have a response to this and no one wanted to acknowledge the elephant in the room. Melina, after not getting an answer for several seconds, ignored them and made her way to the exit, shaking her head as she did so. Paula followed after her, not making eye contact with anybody as she ran for the door.  
The three waited for the door to slam shut before Regina finally burst.

“I cannot BELIEVE she was trying to get Melina to fire us. From our own band!” She screamed as she lifted herself off the floor.

“Really? Because I can,” Jane said, shrugging her shoulders.

“I cannot be the only one who is pissed off about this. And we’re all just supposed to act like we’re okay with this? With having a manager who wants to fuck our lead singer so badly that she’s willing to destroy the entire band in order to do it? Brianna, please tell me this pisses you off too.”

“Of course I’m angry.” Brianna said in a much calmer voice. “But I’m not worried. Paula may want us out of the band but Melina would never let anything happen to us. As much as Paula’s a pain, Melina’s got her wrapped around her little finger. If she says we’re staying, then Paula will agree.”

Regina broke down into insults against the Irishwoman.

“Why don’t we just fire her, instead?” Regina said suddenly. “None of us like her. Melina tolerates her. Barely! Let’s just get a new fucking manager that doesn’t try to sabotage the group from the inside out!”

“Paula’s unfortunately too good at what she does. It would be a big risk to try to break in a new manager at this point. Not when we have such a big tour coming up so soon,” Brianna tried to be the voice of reason.

“Is King not about taking risks?” Regina pleaded, very committed to this idea she had come up with only seconds before. “None of what we’ve done so far has been the safe way to do things. And it’s worked out so far, I think.” She gestured around the luxurious studio they were practicing in.

“We took the risk because we had an idea of where things would work out. And they did. Firing our manager right before a world tour is not a risk, it’s just stupid.”

Regina then turned to Jane.

“Deacy. Come on. Please tell me you agree that Paula should fuck off.”

“I think we should wait and see if we can find someone better first before making any rash decisions,” Jane said simply. “And now, all of this has been a bit much. I’m going to go back home and try to forget this entire conversation ever happened.” And with that, she turned on her heel and marched out of the exit.

“Not much for confrontation, that one.” Brianna commented, as the two watched their bassist exit the building without another word.


	3. got caught in love and stepped in sinking sand

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Regina is a woman on a mission and Melina needs a nap

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really need to come up with some sort of upload schedule bc I feel like the way I’m planning it in my mind is too erratic… maybe like an update or two a week?? Anyways, enjoy the story! 
> 
> I have more notes at the bottom but they include spoilers so see you again at the end of the chapter!

It was several hours later, when Regina had already drove back to her home, that she remembered her quest to find Melina’s new love interest.

That’s how she found herself knocking on Melina’s door late that night, still not sure of what her game plan was. She waited for a couple seconds before Pete Freestone opened the door. Her name was actually Phoebe but Melina fondly referred to her as Pete and the name seemed to stick, and Phoebe didn’t really mind.

“Oh, hello Regina,” Pete cheerfully greeted her.

“Hello,” Regina returned with a smile. Regina didn’t know Melina’s personal assistant that well but every interaction between them had been positive, so she had no complaints. And seeing how Melina liked and trusted her enough to let her live in her house (read: mansion) with her meant that Regina trusted her too. “Is Melina home right now?”

“She is,” Pete confirmed. “But now’s really not a good time. What do you need?”

“Oh, nothing too serious. Just needed to run something by her,” Regina lied. “Do you know how long she’ll be with whatever she’s doing?”

“Uh…” Pete stuttered. “No, not really. Maybe an hour or so? Give or take? But that’s a rough estimate.” With the way Pete was talking, it sounded like Melina did not give her much of a heads up. 

“Then I’ll just wait here,” Regina said with a shrug. God knows she’s known Melina for long enough for it not to be weird that she’s sitting alone in her house.

“Okay,” Pete agreed. “Can I make you anything while you wait. Tea? Coffee?”

“No. Thank you, though,” Regina said, making her way over to one of Melina’s bigger couches, and turned the television on while she waited. Pete sat down on a chair nearby as the two idly watched the news, nothing really grabbing their attention. When the hour ended, and the news changed into some late-night game show, Pete stood up.

“I’ll go check on her and see if she’s ready to come down,” Pete announced, as she began climbing the stairs to Melina’s master bedroom. Regina hummed in appreciation. After another minute or so, she heard thumping down the staircase and looked up to see Melina and Pete coming down together.

“Regina, darling, is everything alright?” Melina asked, hopping two steps at a time as she made her way to the ground floor.

“Yes, Melina, everything’s fine,” Regina hurried to reassure her, seeing the panic in her friend’s eyes as she raced over to the living area as fast as her legs would carry her. 

“Well, not that you’re not welcome at anytime but why are you here? You know we have rehearsal again tomorrow.” Melina was confused. “And I’m always just a telephone away! Is it relationship issues?” She asked suddenly.

“What? Oh no. Nothing like that. Dominick and I are fine,” Regina reassured, getting whiplash from her friend’s change of mood.

“Wanted to get away from your kid?”

“No. Please stop guessing. I’m not avoiding my family,” Regina cried out.

“Well then, what is it?” Melina asked, putting a hand on her hip. For the first time since the conversation started, Regina noticed she was wearing a silk dress robe, and it suddenly occurred to her that Melina didn’t seem to be wearing anything underneath, as if she had only just rushed to put the robe on to get down to Regina as quickly as possible.

“Oh,” Regina said, suddenly. “Were you…” She wasn’t sure how to finish the sentence.

“Yes,” Melina said, curtly. “I was.”

“Oh. But what about the girl? Jamie. What about her?” Regina exclaimed, offended. Why was Melina sleeping around when her soulmate was out there somewhere? She seemed so into her earlier in the day! No one had ever made Melina blush just by the mere thought of them alone. No one had ever made Melina blush, period.

“What about her?” Melina asked, genuinely confused.

“I thought you really liked her!” Regina exclaimed, suddenly feeling very betrayed.

“I do!” Melina insisted, confusion evident in her frantic voice. “I like her quite a bit. Why do you think I wouldn’t?”

“Is now a bad time?” Another voice popped in from the top of the staircase. Regina looked up to see a cute girl, with dark and wavy hair that was a bit of a mess. Regina recognized the old shirt she was wearing as one of Melina’s from several years ago. This was clearly the person Melina had been fooling around with before Regina had interrupted her.

“Yes, it is,” Melina called back to her, with no real malice in her voice.

“I’ll go back upstairs then,” the woman joked in a voice that Regina suddenly realized contained an Irish accent. Wait…

“No, it’s okay. She’s already seen you,” Melina sighed, side-eying Regina, who refused to feel any shame for her actions. “I thought this would be better.” She muttered under her breath, but Regina heard her anyways and was pretty sure who this woman was. She watched her with curiosity, wondering what it was about this stranger that made Melina so flustered. I mean, sure, she was attractive. But so were countless other women that they had encountered on tour.

When the woman, who Regina was almost positive at this point was named Jamie Something, reached the bottom of the stairs, Melina held her hand out and guided her to where the others, which Regina suddenly remembered included Pete as well, were standing. Then she took an over-dramatic, in Regina’s opinion, sigh.

“Jamie, this is Regina Taylor. Regina, this is Jamie.” Her voice sounded defeated, and the woman, who Regina now had confirmation was, in fact, the Jamie that Melina had mentioned earlier in the day, looked at Melina in confusion. After a couple seconds, she shrugged her shoulders and turned to face Regina.

“Hello,” Jamie held out her hand. “It’s nice to meet you, I’m Jamie Hutton, like Melina said. She’s told me about you.” Regina grabbed her hand and shook it back.

“Hi, Melina’s told me about you too. Not much, to be fair. But she specifically mentioned that she thought you were pretty. She wouldn’t stop daydreaming today during rehearsal.” She added, because she was Melina’s best friend and it was her moral obligation to embarrass her. She turned to Melina, who’s eyes were bulging out and looked like she was trying to will Regina to drop dead with her mind. Regina just smiled even wider, making sure to show off some of her teeth in the process.

“Oh. Well that’s good.” Jamie seemed pleased with that, and turned to smile at Melina as well. Melina tried to rein her face in so as to not freak Jamie out too much. “Always a nice thing to hear.”

Regina was about two seconds away from dissolving into laughter at the awkward scene in front of her. None of the three women looked like they had any idea what to do. Jamie was smiling awkwardly, Melina was making a choking gesture with her hands towards Regina and Pete was staring at the wall as if it were somehow more interesting than anything else going on.

“Well, I think this is probably a good moment for me to head off,” Jamie announced into the silence, as she picked up the clothes she had left discarded on the living room floor.

‘Wait a second.’ Regina thought to herself. ‘If she took her clothes off in the living room, why the hell did they move upstairs? Damn, was Melina really that desperate? Oh man, was she never going to live this down.’

“No, dear, you don’t have to leave. Regina was just going now,” Melina hurried, grabbing Jamie’s free hand into her own.

“I have an early shift every day this week,” Jamie explained, her voice apologetic as she pulled on her jeans. “But I had a lovely night. And my early shifts means my nights are free. Any time you are.”

“I’ll call.” Melina said, softly. Jamie smiled at her, and leaned in to give her a soft peck on the cheek. Regina was pleased to see that Melina’s face had heated up around where Jamie had left her mark. For all her teasing, and believe her, there was going to be so much teasing, it was actually quite sweet.

Neither Melina nor Regina were the type to dwell on the sad, both preferring to live upbeat and free lives. But there were times that Regina did worry that Melina got lonely. All of the other King girls were way past dating, each of them were already at the married-with-kids stage while the only serious relationship Melina had ever had was ruined by the sheer fact that she would never be able to fully give herself over to a man. Something Melina could do nothing to help. It was exciting for Regina to see that it was possible for her best friend to have the same kind of happy ending everyone else seemed to have. Nobody deserved it more.

“It was nice to meet you, Regina.” Jamie broke Regina out of her thoughts. “You’re not nearly as bad as Melina made you out to be.”

“Nice to see you too.” Regina said, before she processed the rest of Jamie’s words. “Wait a minute, what has Melina been saying about me?” As if she had any right to be offended at that moment.

Jamie didn’t answer, and instead just smiled back at her. But this wasn’t the warm friendly smile she worn as an introduction. It looked similar to the smile Regina had given Melina just moments ago when she was teasing her. Okay, now Regina could see why Melina and her had gotten on so well.

As Jamie made her exit, she waved back at the group, who all waved back at her, and left.

And then all hell broke loose.

“You are the worst excuse for a friend I have ever had the misfortune to encounter.” Melina screamed, as soon as she heard the door slam and knew Jamie was out of earshot. “You see, this is why I didn’t want to bring her to meet you. Ten seconds into the conversation you’re already telling her how badly I have it for her.”

Others would have been offended by Melina’s words and tone, but Regina took it all in stride, not rising to the bait.

“Oh, come on. As if she doesn’t know already. I mean you were upstairs shagging her. She had to know you at least found her attractive,” Regina defended.

“That is not the point-” Melina began, pointing a finger at Regina. Okay, so now she had definite proof that that was indeed what the two were doing upstairs.

“Anyways,” Regina cut her off, only infuriating the singer more. “She’s very pretty, I agree. She seems nice and very well-intentioned, but not without a funny side. I approve.”

“Oh, you approve, do you?” Melina mocked. “I don’t need your approval, Taylor. I would keep seeing her either way.”

“Because you like her,” Regina teased, drawing out the _like_ as if she were a little kid on the playground. “Melina, I’m glad you’ve found someone who makes you happy,” she said, her voice shifting into a sincerer tone.

Melina opened her mouth to make some retort, but seemed thrown off by her friend’s honesty. She blinked for a moment, trying to think of a response.

“Thank you,” she said after a moment, her voice losing its defensive edge. “I am, too. Now get out of my house, you have better things to worry about than my love life.”

“Debatable,” Regina shrugged but made her way to the door, regardless. “See you at rehearsal tomorrow,” she called, waving her fingers like she was a pageant girl. Melina held her middle finger up in response.

The door slammed, and Melina was left alone in her living room with Pete, who had finally turned her head away from the wall.

“How long do you think it would take to find a replacement drummer if I accidentally killed Regina tomorrow during practice?” Melina asked, her entire body drooping in an effort to remove the tension that had been building up in her body.

Pete, wisely, did not respond. Melina looked at her for a moment, as if she had expected a genuine response to the question.

“If this doesn’t work out with Jamie, I think I’m going to become a nun,” Melina announced, though Pete wasn’t sure if this was to her, or just a promise to the universe itself. “I’m going to go into hiding in a monastery somewhere, and write gospel hymns all day until I drop dead.”

“I’m not sure that’s what nuns actually do,” Pete pointed out.

“Somebody to Love was an amazing gospel song,” Melina continued on as if Pete hadn’t spoken. “I could do that for the rest of my life, easy. Happily, even!”

“Mel, you’re not even a Christian.”

“No, but I’d be very good at faking it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So if any of you are thinking that the relationship went from 0 to 100 real fast, if you read Jim’s recollections of his and Freddie’s time together, they started sleeping together pretty fast as well? Like, around the third or fourth time they saw each other, something along those lines. So, I’m pretty sure their relationship was a case where they were having sex with one another before they had actually fully fallen in love. Just a heads up that I’m not just rushing the relationship out of nowhere, the love part still needs time to develop 😊


	4. add a little bit of meaning to my life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Brianna say she isn't going to get involved and Melina needs a break

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello!!! I made a note last time about uploading schedules but then my brain decided against that so I’m just gonna post whenever, and hope that I can trust myself enough to not post all the chapters at once and then have nothing left to contribute. so do with that info what you must
> 
> also friendly reminder im very open to any improvements or questions if something doesn't make sense, (friendly) criticism can only help someone improve

Brianna knew something was up the second she walked into the rehearsal room. To be fair, it wasn’t often that something wasn’t up when it came to the four girls, so Brianna shouldn’t be surprised at this point. But still. Something was up.  
  
Regina was already sitting at her drums, a knowing smile on her face. She kept looking over to where Melina was standing. Said girl was intentionally not looking at Regina and instead had a lyric sheet placed two inches away from her eyes, clearly trying to look like she was memorizing words but in reality, looking more like she was hiding her face.  
  
Brianna took one look over at Jane, who didn’t seem to know what was going on either. Not wanting to get into it today, Brianna shrugged her shoulders and told herself that it was better that Regina was smug rather than still pissed off about the Paula situation.  
  
“Alright, are we ready to go?” She asked the group, breaking them out of their respective hazes.  
  
“Yep,” Melina stood up straight. She clapped her hands a bit too loudly, and Jane began playing the opening bassline for their first number.  
  
Melina always danced in rehearsal as if she were performing onstage. She would contort her body into inhuman shapes, spin around, thrust her hips into the air, throw herself on the floor. Watching her sometimes gave Brianna the impression that the music itself has possessed her, and she was merely the vessel that did whatever it commanded. She sure as hell never practiced what she was going to do beforehand.  
  
One of the main things she would love to do is run up to where the other musicians were playing, and jump around right in front of them. Nobody knew whether she was just engulfed in the moment and trying to get them into it too, or merely trying to keep them on their toes. But today, for the two-hour no-break rehearsal, Melina refused to even look at Regina and her drum set.  
  
Brianna told herself it wasn’t any of her business. The only reason she should care if Melina was mad at Regina was if it were affecting the music in some way. But their practice today sounded as good as they ever did. Sometimes, Brianna thought that Melina performed better when she was enraged, anyways. So Brianna was not going to say anything. Let them work it out amongst themselves. But then-  
  
“So, I am sure you are all wondering what has been going on today,” Regina announced, standing up from her chair with a flourish after the music had stopped for the day. “I think everyone can sense that the air was a bit charged.”  
  
“Regina, two weeks ago you got so angry at Brianna playing the tempo too slow that you chucked your drumstick at her and got it stuck in the wall. Today has been absolutely dreary in comparison.” Jane piped up for the first time that morning.  
  
Regina just ignored her and steamrolled on.  
  
“Last night, I decided to visit my dear friend Melina,” she continued, waving a hand towards the singer in the corner, as if no one else in the room knew who she was. “And, when I entered the house, I was told that I had to wait in the living room because Melina was busy.” Regina placed extra emphasis on the last word, clearly delighting in her storytelling.  
  
“I don’t know why you thought I wouldn’t be,” Melina muttered from her corner, clearly having given up on trying to stop the drummer.  
  
“And, to my surprise,” Regina ignored Melina’s snort. “I discover that Melina was, in fact, busy. With a woman.” Regina paused for dramatic effect.  
  
“Regina, how is that in any way, shape, or form a surprise to you?” Brianna asked, invested in this story against her better judgement. Not because of what Regina was saying. But because she knew there was something she was still missing, something that Regina was waiting to reveal, something causing Melina a lot of stress.  
  
“Is it because it was the girl Melina mentioned yesterday?” Jane asked. Regina turned, wide-eyed to the bassist.  
  
“You ruined my big reveal,” she cried. “But yes, it was Jamie. Jamie Hutton, as I’ve discovered.”  
  
The three other women stared at Regina, waiting for something more. But that was it.  
  
“And that’s all?” Brianna demanded. “We’ve been waiting for some big reveal and all it is is that Melina slept with a woman? We all know that she does this on a somewhat regular basis.”  
  
“Only somewhat?” Melina asked, offended.  
  
“No!” Regina said, annoyed that no one else was getting the point about what she was telling them. “The big reveal is that Melina slept with a woman, that she is in love with.”  
  
Brianna’s and Melina’s voices broke out at the same moment, overlapping each other.  
  
“Woah woah, nobody said anything about love.” Melina cried out, her face blooming into red patches all over, demonstrating that like it or not, she was well onto her way to being totally in love. Even if she wasn’t fully there already.  
  
“Sleeping with somebody you love shouldn’t be news, it should be normal.” Brianna insisted.  
  
The two women made eye contact with each other, neither acknowledging their almost completely contradictory statements.  
  
“Maybe, it shouldn’t be news conventionally but it’s news for Melina,” Regina insisted, acknowledging Brianna’s comment and ignoring Melina’s entirely.  
  
“And what does that mean?” Melina shouted, sounding very similar to a whistle by this point as her voice had been raising in pitch each time she had spoken.  
  
And soon, ¾ of King had found themselves in an intense three-way argument, somehow defending themselves against several different points simultaneously. Jane personally thought Brianna was winning solely because the other two were too emotionally invested in the subject to argue logically, and instead were just flinging insults at each other. She found herself wondering, not for the first time, if she shouldn’t have just quit when it became clear that their aspirations grew far beyond a mere student band. In another life she could’ve been able to go home to her husband and her kids and have normal complaints about normal coworkers. Not whatever nonsense that always happened with these three.  
  
“Enough!” Brianna finally shouted after more than a few minutes, closer to about half an hour after the argument began. “I promised myself I wasn’t going to get involved when I came in today and look where I am now. Involved. I hope you’re happy.”  
  
“Oh, I am.” Melina and Regina said in unison, though one was entirely honest and one was sarcastic.  
  
“Especially, because Deaky knows I’m right!” Melina exclaimed, turning to the bassist but finding no one else left in the studio. “Oh, she must have left.”  
  
“Not that I blame her.” Brianna sighed. “Look, Mel. Whatever is going on with you, I’m happy for you. Just ignore Regina and everything will work out fine. Hopefully I’ll get to meet her someday, I’m sure she’s lovely.” Brianna tried for a diplomatic approach, though this did not mean that she wasn’t speaking from the heart. It was nice to see her friend genuinely happy for the first time in what was definitely too long.  
  
“Thank you, Bri.” Melina said, with a smile. Neither girl looked over at Regina who was glaring in indignation. “I really hope it works out, too.”

 

  
Melina, true to her word from the night before, did ring Jamie later that day after work. Well, several hours after work. After the mess at rehearsal, she felt she needed to cleanse herself from the bad energy and decided to take a nice hot bath to destress. And after that, she pulled on her second nicest silk robe, her first robe having been used the day before when Jamie was actually in the room with her. And hadn’t that night been just perfect in every way before Regina decided to stick her nose into things.  
  
The rejuvenating procedure made her feel good about herself before she pulled her telephone into her lap and began to dial. As the phone rang, Melina leaned back onto her king-sized bed, and hummed along with the tone. After the third ring, a voice picked up.  
  
“Hello?” Jamie answered.  
  
“Hello, love. It’s Melina,” Melina responded, hoping the ‘love’ wasn’t a bit too strong. She certainly wasn’t trying to give Jamie the impression that she was in love with her. It was far too soon to consider that as an option. Totally ridiculous.   
  
“Oh, hello Melina,” Jamie’s voice had warmed up considerably now that she could hear who was on the other end of the line. Melina tried to ignore the blossoming warmth in her chest as well. “How are you?”  
  
“I’m fine now, darling. Work was a bit crazy today, but I was able to come home and clear my head. How are you?” Melina returned, trying to picture Jamie’s face in her head.  
  
“I’m doing alright. Work was pretty normal for me. But there’s not really much excitement when it comes to cutting people’s hair, unless someone has a bit of gossip they want to share, and no such luck today. Not anything like the life of a of a rock star,” she laughed. “Now, why was work crazy for you?”  
  
“Oh, it’s Regina,” Melina sighed. “But to be fair, it’s usually her. Like a bloody hurricane, that one. You never know what you’re going to end up with, but it’s usually very messy. I’m still so sorry that she ruined last night.”  
  
“She didn’t ruin anything,” Jamie reassured. “I had a wonderful time last night. And I actually think it’s quite sweet how concerned you were about her when you thought she was in trouble. I hear so many stories of actors and musicians who don’t actually care about each other behind the scenes. It’s nice to see that you two’re so close.”  
  
“The only reason I worried about Regina is that trying to replace a drummer this late into the game is a big nuisance if something had actually happened to her,” Melina said. “But yes,” she admitted after a moment. “Regina is, against my better judgement, my best friend.”  
  
“I can see why,” Jamie hummed.  
  
"So, what are you doing tomorrow night?” Melina asked, diverting the subject.  
  
“Nothing,” Jamie stated, simply. “I’m very free most nights. I’m kind of boring, to be honest.”  
  
“You’re nothing of the sort,” Melina cried, offended on her girlfriend’s behalf. Wait, is that what they were? Are they at girlfriend level yet? Despite the rumors and public opinion, Melina was actually completely awful at the rules of dating and relationships. Things with Mark had felt so easy so much of the time because Melina had just mimicked everyone else around her. With Jamie, she felt completely out of her depth.  
  
Jamie just laughed at her indignation.  
  
“Well, I am very free.”  
  
“Lovely. There’s this new restaurant on the other side of town I had been meaning to try out, but I’ve had no one to go with. Would you like to go with me?” Melina asked, suddenly very self-conscious. “I believe it’s Indian fusion.”  
  
“I’d love to go. I’ve never actually had Indian food before, have you?” Jamie asked. Melina just laughed at that for a moment.  
  
“I’m not laughing at you,” she reassured after a moment. “It’s just that I spent most of my childhood at a boarding school in India. That was just food for me.”  
  
“Oh,” Jamie said, sounding like she didn’t know how to elaborate. “Well, that certainly makes sense. You said you went to boarding school there, but not that you were born there. Why’d your parents choose India?” Jamie’s voice had suddenly gotten softer.  
  
“The answer to that is a bunch of byzantine nonsense I’m sure you’re not interested in,” Melina dismissed, trying to figure out why she had revealed something she didn’t like to talk to people about. “But to answer what I think you’re getting at. My family is Indian-Persian, but I was born near South Africa because my parents moved there for a job.”  
  
“I am interested,” Jamie defended. “It’s just nice to hear that I’m not the only one at least a little bit of out of my depth here in England. I mean, Ireland and England are so close to each other but sometimes they feel like worlds away.” She confessed. “South Africa and India. And then England,” she mused to herself. “I guess even before your music you’ve traveled quite a bit.”  
  
Melina allowed her shoulder’s to untense, something she was unaware she was doing until that moment. She wasn’t sure what it was about the Irishwoman, but something about her made things seem so much less complicated. And for once in her life, Melina could use a little less complicated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't mentioned this before but you can follow me at jimhuttonlesbian.tumblr.com (lol), or just send me a message about the fic or anything else. Or even if you don't have a tumblr at all (God, I wish that were me) you can still send me messages. I'm always down to chat!


	5. let's talk about loving right

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which not even all of Regina's chaotic energy can phase Jamie

In an effort to prove Melina wrong, Regina waited an entire three days before seeking out Jamie on her own. Now that she had a full name, she knew she could look through the phone books and find out where she lived. There weren’t too many Jamie Huttons’ listed in England, so it didn’t take too long for Regina to track her down.  
  
When she finally found where she was looking for, she drove herself over to the outer city of London. She parked her car on the side of the street, and strode up to the door. She knocked loudly on the door four times, unable to fight the impulse to form a simple beat with her fists. After a minute of silence, the door finally opened and Jamie’s head poked out curiously. She looked at Regina in confusion for several moments before finally speaking.  
  
“Good to see you again, Regina,” she greeted. Regina could tell she was trying to be polite but couldn’t keep the confused tone out of her voice.  
  
“Nice to see you, too,” Regina answered, brightly. “May I come in?”  
  
She didn’t wait for a response before she entered the narrow hallway.  
  
“I live upstairs,” Jamie said, seemingly unfazed by the cheerful intrusion. The two walked up the steps together in silence. Regina allowed Jamie to pass her as she opened the door to her living space. She held a hand out to gesture for Regina to sit down on the couch. It was old, by the looks of it. And the feel of it, too. Regina winced as she sat down too fast and found her ass being bruised by whatever hard material was holding the sofa up.  
  
“Melina has a younger brother,” Regina began the conversation as if it made any sense in context. “He’s a nice boy, very friendly, the two get along quite well. And I’m sure her brother would love to have the conversation we’re about to have except for the singular fact that Melina never told Kash about being gay.”  
  
Jamie struggled to try to follow the seemingly random order of words Regina was saying. After about a couple of seconds of silence, she finally understood what was going on.  
  
“Now I get it. This is the, ‘you break her heart, I break your face’ conversation.” Jamie nodded, not unfamiliar with this tactic what with the fact that she has nine siblings of her own back home in Ireland. “And I’m sure it’s pointless to tell you that I have absolutely no plans of hurting Melina.”  
  
“Yep,” Regina said, popping the p. She was trying to cover up for the fact that she was thrown off by Jamie catching on so quickly. “I had a speech planned out so you’re going to listen to it.”  
  
Jamie nodded, knowing it would be easier to just listen to the speech instead of fighting it, and risking the chance of having to hear it anyways after the fight was over. Regina took a deep breath and began.  
  
“Melina has been my friend for about fifteen years now, but it feels like I’ve known her most of my life. She is one of the kindest, funniest and most talented people I know. But sometimes, I don’t think she knows that. Sure, she flounces around on stage and acts all holier-than-thou but at the end of the day, she’s just as human as all of us. Maybe even more so. Especially after every serious relationship she’s ever had blowing up in her face. I just want to see my best friend happy. I don’t give a flying fuck if it’s a woman who does that for her, even though everyone else in the world seems to. But I will be damned if I let someone else screw her over like so many already have.”  
  
Regina stopped for several moments to catch her breath. She had planned the speech on the way over in her car, so she didn’t think she would get so caught up in the moment. She was already aware that she felt this way, but she hadn’t realized just how strongly those feelings carried until she had spoken them aloud.  
  
“I think it’s lovely that Melina has someone who cares about her so much,” Jamie answered after a moment, her voice soft. Regina was a little annoyed that she didn’t seem to be intimidated at all. “And I haven’t known her as long as you have. But I’ve seen exactly what you see. When I heard her sing, I knew that she felt that song with every fiber of her being. Even though she was drunk, and singing a cover and annoyed that she was being forced to entertain her guests. She felt that song in her soul. I’ve never seen anyone feel so deeply about anything the way Melina does. And it would be a,” Jamie struggled for the word for several seconds, “a disgrace for me to try to damage that. In any way.”  
  
Well, damn, if that wasn’t a better speech. And Jamie didn’t even have time to plan that one out, it just rolled out of her mouth as if she were some kind of poet, or something.  
  
“Hey, what do you do for a living?” Regina asked, suddenly.  
  
“I’m a hairstylist. Why?” She asked, confused by the change in topic.  
  
“No reason,” Regina shrugged the question off. “It’s just… I worry. About her.”  
  
“Well, I think that’s obvious,” Jamie laughed, but then her laugh melted into a soft smile. “I know being in a big rock band means people are constantly trying to get at you, or to get something from you, and it can be hard to know who to trust. But believe me, I’m not trying to get anything from her, other than a normal relationship. I didn’t even know who Melina was when I met her.”  
  
“Wait, what?” Regina asked, clearly not expecting that. “But you guys met at her party from last week. You’re telling me you were partying at Melina’s house without knowing who Melina was? How did you two even start talking?”  
  
“More like, a friend invited me over to party at Melina’s house while I sat in the corner questioning my life decisions. And, she just came over to me. I thought she was nice, we talked for a while. I think she was as tired of the people in that party as I was. There was something fascinating about that.”  
  
Regina seemed at a loss for words. Damn, Melina really would be the type to fall for the pretty girl who had no idea she was a world famous rock star.  
  
“Fascinating, how?” Regina asked, cautiously, the wording making her suspicious.  
  
“Well, Melina was the one who threw the party, presumably. Which meant that she had intended for a bunch of strangers to trash her lovely house. But then they did, and she seemed like she wanted nothing more than for them to fuck off. Which meant, she must have had ulterior motives.”  
  
“Such as,” Regina asked, suddenly very curious about the direction this conversation was going.  
  
“Such as… being lonely. Wanting to surround herself with people that reminded her she wasn’t the biggest freak in the room. It’s such a big house, I can’t imagine how empty it must feel when it’s just her. I think she wanted the space filled but realized that it didn’t make her feel any less alone once it was.”  
  
Jamie spoke with such honestly that Regina could feel her heart breaking. She knew exactly what Jamie was talking about, it was half the reason she had driven over here, but hearing the words spoken aloud was another thing altogether.  
  
“I haven’t told my family. That I’m gay,” Jamie said, sounding as if she were choosing her words carefully. “The whole thing can be so isolating sometimes. I can’t imagine its any different for Melina. Because at the end of the day, she just seems like the type of person who just wants somebody to love her.”  
  
Regina laughed at that before realizing that Jamie seemed to have no idea what she had just said. Damn, this girl really hadn’t heard any King music before.  
  
“And,” Jamie continued, as if she were preparing to deliver a concluding sentence to a long thesis. “I think that’s why she keeps her manager around. Because Paula gives her the illusion that she’s wanted.”  
  
Regina didn’t speak for several moments.  
  
“So, I take it you don’t approve of Paula Prenter either?” Regina asked with a grin.  
  
“I told Melina that I thought she was going to get on her hands and knees and beg Melina to let her kiss her feet. Or something along those lines. The whole thing made my skin crawl.” Jamie said with a shudder.  
  
And, just like that, Regina was sold. She just hoped Jamie could stick around for a while, because she had a good feeling about her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there you go, hope you liked that chapter featuring both of melina's soulmates, platonic and romantic!  
> and again, you can follow me at jimhuttonlesbian.tumblr.com for all your jimercury needs


	6. i try to hide myself so far from the crowd

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Melina’s life of being adored by fans, entering a relationship with a cute girl and having a best friend who is devoted to her happiness can just be so tiring sometimes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, so I’m an idiot who linked to the wrong tumblr page on the last two chapters, so that should be fixed by now. It’s jimhuttonlesbian.tumblr.com, that’s where you can talk to/follow me. I hope you enjoy the chapter!

“You should invite Jamie to our next gig,” Regina announced suddenly after the band had paused their rehearsal for the day to get lunch. Both Brianna and Jane had just sighed and left the practice room without a word.

“And what makes you think I haven’t?” Melina replied, having already given up on questioning why Regina was so invested in the whole thing. She decided she didn’t want to know.

“So you have?” Regina asked, excitedly. “She said she heard you sing but you were beyond drunk at the party when you met, so that couldn’t have been you at your best. And she’ll get to hear how good I am, too,” she added as an afterthought.

“I’ll have you know I still sound amazing even when I’m drunk,” Melina defended, walking out the door with Regina to try to find some lunch nearby. Neither girls had wanted a long walk which meant they were probably going to have to settle for the nearby pizza place. “And, when did she tell you she had heard me sing, you talked for about thirty seconds the other night? And I was there!”

Regina’s three second silence was enough for Melina to figure out what had happened.

“You didn’t!” She cried out, startling a nearby couple who were walking down the sidewalk in the opposite direction. Melina did not bother lowering her voice. “I told you I shouldn’t have given you her name. You’ve gone and tracked her down, haven’t you? What did you say?”

Regina cursed her own slip of the tongue, her excitement getting the best of her. Well, she supposed Melina probably would have found out from Jamie anyways. It wasn’t like she had sworn the other woman to secrecy or anything.

“Melina, calm down. We just had a normal conversation. I didn’t do anything to her,” Regina defended.

“God, what is it with everybody trying to be my mother?” Melina asked to the heavens. “I am a grown woman. I can make my own decisions on who I want to date,” she declared as she opened the door to the pizza shop. The conversation stopped while the two girls placed their orders at the counter. When Melina took the receipt, the two waited in the back of the restaurant, where they could remain as inconspicuous as possible.

When the man behind the counter finally called their order number, Regina grabbed the two plates and thanked the man. The man smiled in gratitude before asking if he could get an autograph and picture for his daughter. Regina, hands full with plates of pizza, agreed. She called Melina over with a nudge of her head. Melina understood immediately what Regina meant.

The man grinned and ran to the back of the room, and returned with a large camera, babbling nonsense about how big a fan his daughter was and how excited she was going to be when he got home that night. Melina was genuinely thrilled to hear this man speak with such passion, but she had hoped he would do it a little quieter. The other restaurant customers were beginning to turn their heads in interest.

“Could we take this in the back room?” Melina suggested, trying to sound as friendly as possible so as to not make the man feel bad. The man’s eyes widened in shock as he realized the scene he was causing. He nodded frantically and motioned for the two women to follow him to the backroom.

The backroom turned out to be a supply closet, to Melina’s dismay. The three crammed themselves into the small room, and had to practically stack on top of each other to avoid stepping on any of the equipment or ingredients. The man held his camera up and Melina and Regina both painted big smiles on their face. Melina had her arm wrapped around Regina, who was still holding their pizza slices in her hand. After the man had gotten the picture he had wanted, he pulled a pen out of his pocket and handed it to Melina.

Melina signed the photo with ease, and then traded the pen for the two pizzas from Regina. She signed it with a flourish and handed the photo back to the man. The man began thanking them profusely and ushered them back into the restaurant dining area. Regina and Melina both waved before quickly ducking out of the front door, hoping nobody else made eye contact with them. They began walking away as fast as they could without seeming like they were running, neither talking to each other as they sped away. Only once they reached the end of the sidewalk, and began to make a right turn back to where their studio was, did Melina finally open her mouth.

“How enthusiastic do you think that man would have been to get a picture with me if he had known just how deep I had stuck my tongue in another woman just the other night?” She asked, rhetorically. Regina, surprised at the bitter tone that seemingly came out of nowhere, did not reply right away. She couldn’t be positive as to whether Melina was commenting on her promiscuous lifestyle being the point of scandal, or the lesbian part.

“The man probably didn’t know you could do that to a woman during sex. He seemed like the type to only know the missionary position,” Regina said at last, deciding to aim for a joke instead of trying to dissect Melina’s true intentions. Melina took the bait and laughed.  

“Regina, dear. Promise me Dominick knows how to use his fingers and tongue, as well. I couldn’t live with myself if I thought my best friend was in a committed relationship with a man who thinks his dick is the only way to satisfy a woman. I just simply couldn’t bear it.”

Others might feel squeamish at discussing their sex lives with their friends in such a candid way, but Regina and Melina were not the type.

“Oh, believe me. I would never let him get away with that.” Regina promised as they finally reached their studio door. Melina laughed heartily at that and Regina couldn’t stop herself from joining in. “Ugh, why is she here?” Regina hissed under her breath, her laughter dying in an instant. Melina did not have to look up to know that she was talking about Paula.

“Maybe because this is her job?” She suggested with a laugh.

“Yeah, well if I have to look at her for much longer, I’m not going to be able to eat my lunch. So please get her out of here, or at least distract her so she doesn’t come near me,” Regina demanded, as she strode over to where Jane and Brianna were sitting with their lunches. 

Melina rolled her eyes at the blonde’s antics, but did as she requested anyways.

“Hello, Melina,” Paula greeted with a smile, brightening up considerably when she noticed Melina entering the room, knowing it meant she didn’t have to pretend to be interested in what Jane and Brianna were doing. “What were you and Regina laughing about?” she asked, as if she cared about anything Regina had to say.

“The missionary position,” Melina answered honestly.

“Oh,” Paula said, not sure how to respond to that. Melina used the lack of talking to her advantage and began eating her pizza, which had grown cold.

“How disappointing,” Melina commented aloud.

“The pizza or the missionary?” Paula asked.

“Both.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There’s a deeper meaning hidden in the final bit of the dialogue, but idk if it actually makes any sense or not lol


	7. all the power like a king on (her) throne

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Jamie gets to find out what all of us already knew.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I didn’t plan for this to update on Valentine’s Day but it’s a nice coincidence. So I hope you have/had a nice holiday and enjoy some sappy lesbians!

Melina and Jamie had figured out pretty quickly that in order for Jamie to not have to take off work early, and for Melina to get to her soundcheck on time, Melina would have to pick Jamie up straight from work.  
  
Melina waited in the back of her car, she didn’t have a driver’s license herself, but soon grew impatient when Jamie was nowhere to be seen after five minutes. Her driver, Terry, tried to reassure her that they were early, but Melina shook her head and decided to walk inside.  
  
The hair salon that Jamie worked at was rather small, all things considered. There didn’t look to be more than ten or so people inside, employees included. Melina scanned the room but found no sign of Jamie. She accidentally made eye contact with the lady at the front desk, who looked back at her with a fierce curiosity.  
  
“Hello,” Melina greeted, trying to act casual. “I’m looking for a Miss Jamie Hutton?” She asked, resisting the urge to search the room herself. The lady’s curious eyes widened in shock.  
  
“She’s in the back, getting changed.” The lady pointed towards a small hallway in the back of the salon, not taking her eyes off Melina for a second. “You know, when Jamie told me she was getting ready for a date right after work, I wasn’t expecting it to be Melina Mercury.” Her last couple words turned louder with accusation, and Melina turned to see Jamie emerging from the back room with a dazed expression on her pretty face.  
  
“Well, it’s not as if you would’ve believed me if I told you,” Jamie shrugged the other woman’s words off, making one last motion to smooth down her hair. “I’m sorry that you came in, I thought I was going to meet you in the car.”  
  
“Oh, nonsense,” Melina waved the apology off. “It was nice to meet you,” she told the woman at the front desk, but this was a bit of a lie seeing as they really hadn’t met each other at all. She was still referring to her as _Woman At The Front Desk_ in her head.  
  
“Pleasure’s all mine,” the woman returned quickly. She sent a final sharp look at Jamie who just rolled her eyes, and the two women left the building. Melina slid into the backseat of the car, and Jamie followed suit. Terry took off in an instant, as the two buckled their seatbelts.  
  
“Are you nervous?” Jamie asked curiously, looking out the same window as Melina. The driver was getting through the city at a surprising speed considering the amount of traffic that was usually in the area.  
  
“Of course not,” Melina brushed off the question. “I love performing. It’s probably when I’m most comfortable, actually. The more people in the crowd, the more alive I feel,” her voice drifted off near the end. Jamie smiled at that, and tried to imagine what that was like.  
  
The rest of the ride was relatively peaceful, neither woman had engaged in any particularly intense conversational topics, knowing that now was not the time. Melina was quieter than usual, trying to get herself focused for what was ahead. Jamie didn’t mind, she was feeling the pre-show nerves herself, and appreciated the lack of intense stimulus.  
  
The car began to slow down, and Jamie realized with a start that they were already at the venue. She hadn’t noticed because the car was parked near the back of the stadium, which was a much less impressive sight than what the front must have looked like. She realized, after a moment, that this was much more practical. It probably reduced the number of rapid fans swarming the car before Melina had a chance to get her bearings.  
  
Melina opened the car door, and then held out a hand for Jamie to take, but soon let go when they walked out into the street, into the public eye.  
  
Things backstage were a little more chaotic than Jamie would have imagined. People were running in every different direction, large equipment flying all over the place. Someone slipped a lanyard over her head when she wasn’t looking. Melina seemed perfectly unfazed by it all, and calmly guided Jamie though the masses of people. When they reached the end of a long hallway near the back, Melina held the door open and signaled for Jamie to step through.  
  
Jamie looked around and realized that it was the band’s dressing room. It was the least frantic area of the whole building, only a handful of people were in the room, and none of them were running around or screaming at the top of their lungs. Jamie breathed out a sigh of relief. Melina laughed at that and led her over to where the others were sitting.  
  
“You must be the elusive Jamie we keep hearing about,” one of the women greeted, holding out her arm for a handshake. She was a few inches taller than Jamie and Melina, who both just barely passed five feet. She had a large mop of curly hair that looked impossible to tame, and a friendly smile on her angular face. “I’m Brianna.”  
  
“Hello Brianna.” Jamie took her hand and shook it for a moment. “Yeah, I’m Jamie. You play the guitar, right?” Jamie asked, wanting to make sure she knew for sure who she was talking to, and didn’t inadvertently offend anyone later on down the line. “Melina talks about me?”  
  
“Yep, lead guitarist,” Brianna confirmed. “And yes, of course Melina’s talk about you. And Regina also tends to bring you up in conversation, as well.” She nodded over to where the drummer was sitting. Regina, hearing her name, looked up and waved at Jamie, who waved back. Melina just rolled her eyes.  
  
“And this is Deaky.” Melina maneuvered Jamie over to another woman, who was sitting a few feet away, a bass guitar at her feet.  
  
“Jane Deacon,” Jane clarified, also offering her arm out for a handshake. “I’m the bass player,” she added. Jamie nodded with a smile, and Jane said nothing else.  
“A woman of few words, that Deaky,” Melina commented.  
  
“Nothing wrong with that,” Jamie shrugged as a frantic knock echoed throughout the room. Brianna, being the closest, went over to open the door, and an exhausted looking man barged through.  
  
“Five minutes,” he said, catching his breath. “Sound check in five minutes,” he clarified, before running out the door again. None of the others in the room seemed fazed by this.  
  
“Bit frantic, isn’t it?” Jamie commented. Melina smiled at her, as she began singing different notes at various ranges, presumably warming up her voice. The sheer power in something that seemed so effortless blew Jamie away. The warm up filled Jamie with anticipation and she was suddenly very excited for the concert tonight.  
  
Regina began joining in after a moment, and the two began forming ridiculous sounding harmonies that echoed through the tight room. Jamie was surprised to hear that Regina had a lovely sounding voice as well, though it carried much more of a raspy sound than Melina’s cleaner tones. When they finished, Jane stood up and Brianna grabbed her guitar and they all began to exit the room, none of them communicating to the others what they were doing.  
  
Melina grabbed Jamie’s hand suddenly, and kissed it quickly.  
  
“I’ll show you where in the wings you can stand to get the best view,” she promised, before exiting the room behind the rest of the band. And so King marched together towards the stage, and Jamie followed behind them, keeping her eyes focused on Melina to avoid getting engulfed by the rest of the wild crewmen.  
  
The band began setting up their instruments, and walking around the stage to get a feel for the space, while Melina walked with Jamie through the wings and into the audience seats.  
  
“This is just a soundcheck so there’s no one actually here yet. Meaning you have your pick of the lot,” she explained, gesturing towards the rows and rows of empty seats. Jamie’s mind reeled as she tried to imagine the room being inhabited by that sheer number of people. She eventually chose a seat directly in the middle, a couple rows back so she could get the whole view of the stage. “Good choice,” Melina praised, and kissed Jamie so quickly on the cheek that no one could have possibly noticed even if they were looking, which judging by the madness that Jamie could see in the background, no one was.  
  
Melina returned back to the stage, and began playing random keys on the piano, making sure it was fine-tuned to her standards. After a moment of idle playing by all of the members, a man cried out in the background for people to be quiet. The chaos began to subside, and Jamie leaned forwards in concentration.  
  
Melina nodded at Regina who began to count down. Melina began banging her hand down on the piano while the rest of the band waited patiently for their cue.  
  
_“She keeps her Moet et Chandon in her pretty cabinet…”_ Melina began singing, much clearer than she had the night that Jamie had met her, which made sense because she was a lot less drunk this time around. After two or three lines, the band began to play as well. Jamie couldn’t resist bopping her head along to the music. The song had much more of a lighter sound than Jamie had expected from a famous rock group, but she wasn’t complaining. The song only continued on for another verse before abruptly stopping.  
  
The four waited patiently until the same man from before cried out that everything was okay, and sounded good. Melina nodded her head, and got up from her piano, a stagehand handing her a microphone. Jamie noticed that it was broken halfway and wondered what the story behind that was.  
  
This time, Jane started the intro with a bassline, this song sounding much more like Jamie was previously expecting. Melina belted her heart and soul out to the first verse, something that Jamie admired, considering that the current audience consisted of one person and a sound team checking for broken equipment or microphones. The amount of people in the room didn’t seem to matter to her, she gave it her best anyways.  
  
After the first verse ended, the band stopped abruptly again, and again got the okay from the sound guy.  
  
“Wonderful,” Melina cheered, and hopped off the stage, over to where Jamie was sitting.  
  
“You sounded great,” Jamie complimented quietly, once Melina was within hearing range.  
  
“Oh, that was nothing.” Melina waved the compliment away with her hand as if it were a buzzing insect. “Wait, until tonight. That’s when it will really get good.”  
  
“I can’t wait.” Jamie said, with total honesty.  
  


About an hour before the show was supposed to start, Jamie began to hear people entering the theater. For some reason, the sound was making her nervous, as if she was going to be the one to have to go out there and perform for all of them. She turned back to look at Melina, who looked like she didn’t have a care in the world.  
  
The rest of the band didn’t look too worried, either. Jane was up against the wall having a drink. Brianna was talking to one of the sound people. Regina was drumming a beat on her leg. Melina was applying the finishing touches to her makeup. The make-up wasn’t very complicated, it was mainly focused on heavy amounts of eyeliner.  
  
But the outfit.  
  
Strictly speaking the outfit wasn’t complicated, either. And that was part of the problem.  
  
Melina was wearing the tightest leather pants Jamie had ever seen. She didn’t even know leather pants came in bright red, but there they were. And as for shirts, there wasn’t one. Just a plain black bra that crisscrossed down her back. It wasn’t entirely dissimilar to the outfit she had on the night they met, but Jamie had assumed there would be some difference between the outfit for a concert and the outfit for a wild party.  
  
The rest of the girls didn’t bat an eye, which meant that they were probably used to the entire thing. Jamie did not have such a luxury, and thus felt her eyes continuously returning to Melina’s chest, try as she might to stop it.  
  
Melina noticed her staring and winked, causing Jamie’s face to heat up as she tried to pretend she was looking at the sign directly behind Melina’s head. Melina didn’t fall for it and laughed. She took pity anyways and turned around to go back to applying make-up.  
  
“You should have seen the types of things she wore in the seventies,” Regina cut in, having also noticed that Jamie was staring. When Jamie turned in curiosity, Regina raised her eyebrows. “Skintight leotards,” was all she said.  
  
And so Jamie was left to ponder that particular image which refused to leave her brain until a crewmember announced that it was five minutes until showtime.  
  
The band huddled together for a moment, whispering things too softly for Jamie to hear. Then they broke loose and strode out the door. Melina waited at the doorway with a smile, and Jamie took that as a sign to follow her.  
  
“Nervous?” She asked, as they dodged the crewmembers who were still running around.  
  
“I feel like I should be the one asking you that,” Jamie joked as they rounded the corner into the wings.  
  
“Yes, but this is just my career. I’ve been doing the same thing for well over a decade. You’re the one that’s new to all of this,” Melina said. “I’ve even been in this theater several times already. So I know that the best spot to watch is right here,” she said, as she led the two of them over to an isolated corner backstage.  
Jamie saw what Melina meant. This angle covered the entire stage, and kept whoever was looking away from the view of the audience. She could hear them chanting as she scanned the area.  
  
“I have to go now,” Melina said. “I’ll see you after the show,” and with a final wave, Melina walked to where the rest of the band was waiting, across the stage from Jamie. Melina jumped up and down as she ran, and Jamie smiled to herself.  
  
She saw Melina lean over to whisper something in Regina’s ear, as the stadium went dark, indicated that the show was about to start. As soon as the cheering picked up, Melina sprinted out onstage, her arms raised in the air.  
  
The audience lost their minds.  
  
Jamie could feel their screams in her chest as she watched Melina strut around the stage for a moment. She almost didn’t notice the rest of the band run on as well, until she heard the opening riff from Brianna’s guitar. Her eyes were entirely fixed on Melina.

When Jamie watched the concert, it was as if she was seeing Melina for the first time. Truly seeing her. Nothing in the world could have prepared Jamie. Not the drunk piano ballad, not the microphone check, nothing. Melina Mercury was entirely in her element, holding the entire audience in the palm of her hand from the second she walked out on that stage, and not letting up for even a second. It was as if the music had become her.  
  
The concert had ended far too quickly for Jamie. Even though she logically had registered that the band had done about an hour and a half worth of music, everything felt as if it had gone at double speed.  
  
She felt her hands shake in anticipation as Melina thanked the crowd, and the rest of the band joined her at the front of the stage for their final bows. They waved at the audience as they collected their things and walked offstage to a rapturous standing ovation.  
  
She saw Melina do a fist pump from across the stage, and then turn to make eye contact with her. Jamie didn’t know how to communicate everything she felt so she just stuck two thumbs up with a big grin on her face. Melina laughed at that and then crossed around the back to come find her.  
  
“That was amazing,” Jamie shouted as soon as she saw Melina coming close enough to her. Melina beamed in response. The rest of the band came over after a minute.  
  
‘What’d you think?” Regina asked with a grin, seeing Jamie’s excited face, and already knowing what the answer was.  
  
“That was the first rock concert I’ve ever been to and I already know it’s the best,” Jamie said rapidly, her brain running at ten times the speed of her mouth.  
  
“Wait what?” Regina’s face fell slightly as she turned to Brianna and Jane. Brianna seemed taken aback as well and Jane just raised an eyebrow. “Melina, you’re dating someone who’s never been to a rock concert before?”  
  
Melina turned rapidly to see if anyone had heard Regina’s comment. There was no one else within ear shot, so she turned back and laughed.  
  
“Well, she’s seen a rock concert now! And aren’t you glad her first experience is with a quality band?” she teased. Brianna rolled her eyes at that. “Now let’s get out of here!” She yelled, and the rest of the band cheered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as always, you can find me at jimhuttonlesbian.tumblr.com


	8. the words that made them happy once now echoed as a curse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which straight people ruin everything (jk)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hit me up at jimhuttonlesbian@tumblr.com, i'm always down to chat and I hope you enjoy this chapter

The next morning there was a loud knock on the door, waking Melina and Jamie from their sleep. They had not quite managed to make it to the upstairs bedroom the night before. Instead, they had crashed on the admittedly still luxurious couch in the main living room, the adrenaline finally wearing off as they walked back inside. Jamie had flopped down first, and Melina had rested her head on Jamie’s chest, and the two sat for hours, just making conversation or halfway watching whatever was on the television.  
  
Eventually, Melina had fallen asleep to the feeling of Jamie stroking her hair, not entirely unlike the way one would pet a cat. Jamie, not wanting to wake Melina up, had shifted slightly and fallen asleep as well.  
  
The two were so thoroughly tangled together by the next morning that they had accidentally knocked their heads into each other, both sitting up to hear what the loud noise was. They giggled to themselves as Pete entered the doorway.  
  
“Tell whoever it is to fuck off,” Melina ordered, with no actual malice in her voice. Instead it just sounded croaky as she rubbed her eyes.  
  
“It’s Mark,” was all Pete said back, and Jamie felt Melina tense in her arms.  
  
“Oh,” she said, softly. There was a strange emotion in her voice that Jamie could not pick up on, but she could tell that this was clearly not the person she had expected it to be.  
  
Melina looked down at herself, her old t-shirt wrinkled beyond repair from the way she had curled up against Jamie, and groaned. Jamie shifted herself to allow Melina to sit up.  
  
“I’ll go to the door,” she told Pete after a moment. “Just give me a second.” Pete nodded and left the room, presumably to tell whoever Mark was that Melina was coming.  
  
Melina tried her best to flatten out her shirt, but knew that it was to no avail.  
  
“Good morning,” she said to Jamie after a moment. “Sorry about the wake-up call. Go back to sleep, I’ll just be a moment.” And then she left. Jamie was left with the distinct impression that whoever Mark was, Melina did not want him and Jamie to be in the same room together.  
  


As Melina made the walk from her living room couch to the doorway, a journey much longer than the average person should have to take, her mind began to catch up to her, finally waking up with the rest of her body. Why did Mark want to talk to her after all this time? Did something happen?  
  
She began walking a bit faster until she had reached the front entrance.  
  
And there he was. Mark Austin. The man whose heart she had broken, and who had broken her heart in return. Too many words to say, and none of them appropriate to say out loud.  
  
“Hello Melina,” Mark said into the silence, his voice cautious as her took in her sleepy state. “I’m sorry I woke you.”  
  
“Don’t worry about that at all. It’s good to see you,” Melina tried in what she hoped was a casual voice. Mark nodded with a small smile. God, Melina hated what they had become. Because maybe she was never really in love with him the way she should have been, and maybe it was never going to work out, and maybe this and maybe that, but at the end of the day, regardless of what they were, they had been close. Melina had trusted him with things she had never trusted anybody with. And now, here they are, standing in a doorway like idiots. “Would you like to come in?”  
  
“Yes, I would,” Mark said, finally shutting the door behind him. Melina had noticed that Pete had found a moment to slip away during that awkward reception.  
  
“So, what brings you over here?” Melina tried to insert some more enthusiasm into her voice as she lead Mark into the dining room and sat them at her grand dining room table. The living room would have been more suitable but she had to make do with what she had.  
  
“I just… wanted to see you,” Mark admitted. “For so long, I thought it would be hard to. And that it would be better for us both to have a clean break, but now, I don’t think so. I think you were right. About needing each other in our lives. Even if it’s not the way I would have hoped.”  
  
And just like that Melina found herself with a burning pit of shame in her stomach. She picked up one of the decorative fruits she had sitting at the center of the table and began picking at it. She had meant what she had said to Mark the day they had broken up, every word of it, but she had not thought for a second about what it would have actually meant.  
  
The thought of Jamie laying on her couch was burned into her brain, and she couldn’t shake it away. Jamie, beautiful, sweet and normal Jamie who wanted nothing more than for Melina to be exactly the person she was. The thought of telling Mark about her made her skin crawl, for reasons she couldn’t begin to name.  
  
Then Melina realized she had never actually responded back to Mark, who was looking at her with worry in his eyes.  
  
“Of course. I want that too,” Melina said, maybe a bit too defensively.  
  
“I don’t want to talk about this anymore,” Mark said, abruptly. “We’ve both said what we need to say and now we can move on from this.”  
  
Melina didn’t need to ask what ‘this’ referred to. Mark clearly did not want to talk about anything to do with Melina and her disobedient sexuality any longer. Both of them had shared the habit of not dwelling on terrible things for any longer than they had to, and this was just going to be one of those things. Melina understood, but she wondered if there was ever going to be a time where the very idea of who Melina was wasn’t going to be in the air between them when they spoke. But Melina was going to try to be the best that she could be for Mark.  
  
And then Jamie walked through the door.  
  
“I am so sorry,” Jamie said to the pair sitting at the table. Melina was looking at her in total panic, eyes racing back and forth between her and the man who was presumably named Mark. He was looking at her in confusion, and not a little bit of annoyance. “I just really needed to use the bathroom and this house is so big, I couldn’t find it.”  
  
“It’s up the stairs and to the left of Tiffany’s room,” Melina said in a rushed voice, using vague hand gestures to accompany what she was saying. Usually, Jamie would have made a short joke about Melina having separate rooms for each cat, but she knew now was not the moment and quickly turned from the kitchen and raced away.  
  
“So who was that?” Mark asked, because it was the one question Melina did not want to answer and that’s just the way the universe seemed to work these days. Melina had not yet found a kind way to break the news that she had begun seeing someone else, and yet again her mind was reeling as she tried to find a suitable answer.  
  
“Her name is Jamie.” Melina figured a name would be a good start, but she also knew this answer would not satisfy Mark’s curiosity.  
  
“And how do you know her?” Mark continued. Melina wasn’t sure if Mark actually did not know the answer or if he was just pretending to be ignorant so that he could avoid the real answer.  
  
“We met at a party,” Melina answered, because it was the truth.  
  
“And now she’s sleeping over at your house?” Mark asked.  
  
“Yes.”  
  
“Okay,” Mark shrugged. “She’s pretty.”  
  
And Melina honest-to-god had no idea how to respond to that. That was such a loaded statement there were at least twelve different layers to unpack alone. So, instead of answering, she just nodded her head and went back to picking at her decorative fruit.  
  
The two went uncomfortably silent after that, not knowing what topics were okay to talk about now. Romeo had hopped onto the table, and walked over to Mark, who began absent-mindedly petting him as he continued to stare Melina down.  
  
“I should go,” he said, standing up and startling Romeo into jumping back off the table. Melina watched as he sped out of the kitchen door and she heard his distant thuds as he ran up the staircase. She knew she should have argued with Mark, offered him a drink or to sit down and watch television, but she did not. Instead, she stood up out of her chair as well and walked him to the door.  
  
Mark opened the door, and turned back to look at Melina. He had a thoroughly miserable look on his face, and Melina was sure hers didn’t look any better.  
  
“I miss you, Melina,” Mark said, holding out his hand for a split second, as if going for a hand shake or a hug, but almost instantly dropping it back down to his side. Melina just gave him a tight smile and waved. Mark walked out the door and Melina watched him for a moment from the window, her entire body feeling numb.  
  
After a moment of staring at the now empty street in front of her, she turned back around and walked up her staircase, sure that Jamie wasn’t still using the bathroom and wondering where she would have gone. After checking through several empty rooms, she finally found her laying on the ground, Romeo sitting on her thighs.  
  
Melina laughed softly at the ridiculous sight, and Jamie pushed the top half of her body, the part that wasn’t being used by a cat, into a sitting position and smiled back.  
  
“Sorry, I didn’t want to interrupt your conversation, so I went to play with your cats,” she offered as an explanation. Melina got down on her hands and knees and crawled over to the center of the room. Once she had gotten to where the two were laying, she flopped her entire body spread-eagle next to Jamie. Romeo continued to purr away.  
  
“Are you okay?” Jamie asked so quietly Melina almost didn’t hear her. Melina nodded. “You don’t have to talk if you don’t want to, but who was he?”  
  
“I don’t know. An ex, I suppose. But I hate the sound of that. Why should it be that just because it doesn’t work out between two people romantically, that they should be out of your life forever? Are people not worth more than that?” Melina asked, her voice growing desperate as she asked the last question.  
  
Jamie pondered Melina’s words for a moment. It was strange, because she personally had figured out that she was gay sometime around college-age, and had pursued only women ever since. But here was this woman, well into her thirties, mourning the loss of an ex-boyfriend, a loss that had seemed somewhat recent. Was Jamie the first woman Melina had ever fallen in love with? Or was Melina one of those strange instances where someone could love both? The thought had never even occurred to Jamie until now.  
  
But she found that the more she thought out the entire thing, the less she cared.  
  
“They should be,” Jamie agreed, finally. “But sometimes it gets too hard. To have someone in your life but not being able to be with them. Or watch them be with someone else. Sometimes it’s easier to just move on, for your own sake, you know?” Jamie wasn’t really sure where she was going with this particular advice.  
  
“He proposed to me. And I said yes,” Melina said, her voice breaking on the last word. Jamie was startled by the words for a moment before realizing that she had mentioned that he was, indeed, an ex. “I’m never going to be able to get married now. I don’t know what to tell my parents. I don’t know what I’m doing.” Melina was aware that she was spiraling, but it just felt so good to have someone near her, who was on the same wavelength, at least a little bit. Someone who had confided in her last week that her mother didn’t know either.  
  
“You can get married if you want to,” Jamie argued, slightly flustered about talking about weddings to a girl that she cared about deeply, but definitely would never agree to get married to at this stage of their relationship. “It won’t be legal, but you know. That doesn’t have to matter.”  
  
And Jamie knew she was only addressing the surface level of the problem, but she didn’t have the answers for the harder questions, and she had just wanted so badly to make things okay for the other woman. Romeo hopped off of her stomach, and onto Melina’s chest. Melina looked up at the little cat with tears forming in the corner of her eyes. Jamie pretended to not notice as Melina quickly brushed them away.   
  
“I’m sorry things have to be so difficult with me,” she said in what was barely even a whisper. Jamie took Melina’s hand and held it to her chest.  
  
“I want to be with you, Melina. You and I can deal with everything else that comes along.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, just a quick heads up so you know where I stand. The way Marc and Melina talk in this fic about Melina and her sexuality is just a bit off-putting, it’s not supposed to be one hundred percent comfortable bc Mark doesn’t handle things the way he should and it causes Melina to have a negative reaction. Just know, I’m not endorsing things in here as if it’s how it should be. Thank you!  
> Also, if this is a bit of a downer, here’s a dumb video I uploaded in tribute to this new chapter (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CJCYmLDQR8)  
> Have a nice day, hope y’all are doing good.


	9. sometimes i feel nobody gives me no warning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which everyone in this story is clueless about everything

“Deaky, I’m going to ask you something. And you have to promise me you won’t tell anyone else I asked you this, alright?” Melina pounced on the poor bassist the second she had walked through the studio door. Jane just accepted that it was just going to be one of those days and nodded.

“Go for it.”

“Okay,” Melina took a deep breath to steady herself. She had excited herself too much by trying to catch Jane as soon as she walked through the door. She had to talk fast because she knew Brianna and Regina could walk in at any second. “You’re a happily married woman now. How did you know, just in your own experience, that you were in love with Ron? When _exactly_ did you know?”

Jane took a second to process the question and knew exactly what Melina was really asking, the interrogation was not as subtle as she probably had hoped. She could tell that Melina didn’t actually give a shit about the timeline of her own marriage.

The fact of the matter is, Ron had accidentally knocked Jane up, and being the devoted Catholic that he was, the two had decided to marry before the baby could be born out of wedlock. But that wasn’t the type of thing Melina needed to hear right now.

“I don’t have a good answer for you,” she admitted. “There wasn’t really a moment for me, it was more just… realizing over time. That he was my favorite person, and that I’d rather be around him than not be, you know?” Jane shrugged, and continued walking into their practice room.

“But there has to be more to it than that,” Melina cried, following after her. “I mean, I like you and Regina and Brianna. And you make me happy, even though sometimes I want to kill all of you. But most of the time, I care about you. But I know that I’m not in love with any of you.”

“I don’t know, Melina. I don’t think there’s a good answer. I think you just… _know_.” Jane leaned against the wall as she waited for the rest of the band to arrive.

Jane was right in that this wasn’t a good enough answer for Melina, but she knew it was the best she was going to get. But the words nagged at her. She didn’t know! She thought she did, that she had loved Mark with her whole heart. But she was clearly wrong about that. Not about loving him, she still did. But she wasn’t _in love_ with him. It was strange that one word should make all the difference.

Melina was broken from her musing when Regina entered the room, sunglasses still on her face as if they weren’t indoors. Melina knew she wanted people to think she was cool because of it, but she knew it was actually because the girl was blind as shit. The second Brianna walked through the door, Regina yelled.

“Okay, are we ready to go?”

“Give me a moment to set up,” Brianna moaned, pulling her guitar over her shoulder. She looked tired, as if she hadn’t slept at all the night before. Melina made a mental note to ask about that after practice.

Jane picked up her bass as well, and walked over to the corner where she usually stood.

“Melina,” she called out, trying to quickly get the singers attention before Regina began banging her drums in impatience. Melina turned to her, as well as the other two members. Jane really wasn’t one for attracting attention to herself, so they were all curious about what she had to say. When she knew Melina was looking, she smiled.

“I think if you’re asking me that question, you probably already know the answer.” She said nothing else, and put her fingers into position, nodding at Regina to play.

“Wait, what question?” Regina asked instead, sitting up straighter than usual. “What did she ask you?” When she saw that Jane was not going to give her a response, she turned to Melina instead. “What did you ask her?”

Melina did not answer the question, the color fading from her face as she took in what she had just heard. Was it actually possible that she was already in love? In such a short period of time?

Because, sure. She was attracted to Jamie. She thought Jamie was a lovely soul, soft-spoken in one moment but absolutely not afraid to stand up for herself in the next. She made Melina feel like a normal person for the first time in too long. Melina wanted to spend her days with her, have her to come home to every night. Write songs about her. Adopt more cats with her.

But all that didn’t necessarily mean that she was in love. Did it?

“Melina?” She heard Regina ask, and noticed that the blonde had gotten out of her seat and walked over to her, waving her hand in front of her face. “Ground control to Major Tom? I know you’re somewhere on Mercury right now but we need you to come back to Earth.”

Brianna rolled her eyes at the bad joke. Melina jumped back, startled.

“Sorry. Lost in thought. Let’s play this damn song,” Melina insisted, shaking her head as if she could literally shake out the intrusive mental thoughts. Regina growled.

“You don’t know what Melina asked Jane, do you?” She turned on Brianna.

“How would I know? I came in after you did. And can we start playing now?” Brianna bit out. Regina turned and went back to her seat, muttering something under her breath about conspiracies against her. But, nonetheless, she did begin to play.

   
  


After rehearsal, Regina asked Melina if she wanted to go out with her to get a drink.

“If this is just some kind of attempt to get information out of me, then no,” Melina cut her off as she wiped away some of the sweat from her forehead.

“I was going to ask you, anyways,” Regina defended, not actually answering whether or not Melina was correct in her assumption. Melina agreed, knowing she was probably going to regret it in a few hours. But also knowing that she really needed a drink.

The two bid farewell to Jane and Brianna and made their way into the parking lot, where Regina’s car was sitting. They climbed in smoothly and Regina drove them over to a nearby pub, a couple streets down from their studio.

“Ah shit, I forgot to ask Brianna something,” Melina exclaimed, causing Regina to nearly step on the breaks in a panic. She took a moment to breathe, before glaring at the street ahead, knowing she couldn’t glare at her friend without turning her eyes away from the road.

“What did you want to ask her?” She said, as she turned into the pub parking lot.

“It’s not important now,” Melina said. She really needed to keep better track of her own thoughts today, everything felt so scattered.

“So is it just ‘keep things from Regina’ day or something?” Regina asked, parking her car in the closest spot she could get to the front of the building. Experience told her she might need to make a quick exit, not that she was planning on anything happening. It was just always good to be prepared.

The two entered the building, which was already fairly busy, given that King tended to end their practices a bit later than the average workday ended. They managed to find two seats together at the end of the bar.

When the bartender handed them their drinks, they had a quick toast, clashing their glasses together before taking a huge chug.

“I missed beer so much when I was pregnant,” Regina announced out of nowhere, given that she hadn’t been pregnant for about two years at this point. “Don’t get pregnant, Melina. I know that’s not really an issue for you. But still, don’t. It sucks.” She took another huge gulp of her beer.

“I’ll take your word for it,” Melina said. The two slipped into a companionable silence for a few minutes. They listened to the sounds of the bar, which admittedly weren’t very pleasant. There was a student band playing in the background. Melina winced as she heard the lead’s voice crack for the third time, he was clearly very nervous. But still, there was potential.

Regina snickered when she heard the drummer. He had managed to drop his drumstick for the third time, and they were only halfway through the second song.

“Remember when this was us?” Regina asked, as the drummer somehow managed to throw his drumstick right into the back of their guitarist’s head.

“Oh, you insult me. And yourself,” Melina laughed, and then winced. Ooh, that boy was way too sharp on that last note. “And besides, when you hit Brianna in the back of the head, you did it on purpose.”

“Can I buy either of you ladies a drink?” A voice cut off the girl’s reminiscing. They both turned to see an older man, at least seven years (and probably older) than Melina. He had a serious five o clock shadow going on, and had clearly been at this bar for at least a few hours.

“You can. But that doesn’t mean either of us will sleep with you after,” Melina retorted, eyeing him with distaste. She was just tired of everybody trying to get something out of her.

“Big words to match those gigantic teeth of yours,” the man slurred, his demeanor changing in an instant. Regina’s did, too.

“You’re one to talk,” she began, rising out of her seat. Melina had to grab her fist before she began swinging.

“Down girl. Easy,” Melina tried to soothe, as she glared at the man. “There was really no need to get your panties in a bunch, we’re both just already taken,” Melina tried to be the rational one, putting her full body into containing the vengeful blonde.

The man scoffed at the ridiculous scene but backed off, noticing that about a third of the bar had turned to watch the commotion. Melina wrestled Regina back into her seat, and forced the alcohol back into her hand, to try to get her brain to focus on something else.

She had desperately hoped that the guy hitting on them simply thought they were pretty, and was not doing it because he recognized them. The last thing Melina needed was a giant headline the next day speculating who Melina Mercury’s new man was, if this asshole had decided to run to the press.

“You know, I think you have the right idea being into women,” was all Regina said, and chugged the rest of her drink in one go, yelling for the bartender to bring her another one immediately.

“It’s not any easier, I promise you.” Melina said, leaning her head into her hands as she took another sip of her drink.  

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I used to make fun of the clueless lesbian meme but then a girl started hitting on me and I was like "jdiwjdiji what does this mean" and I realized I had become it.  
> So I sympathize with Melina. Relationships are weird, and gay dating is so much weirder bc it feels like no one tells you the rules.  
> Have a lovely night/day/whatever's going on with you when you read this, love you!


	10. packed your bags and you're leaving home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which being in a famous rock band requires actual work and preparation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, slightly longer chapter to compensate for the fact that the entire thing is all weirdly written for some reason? All the wording in this chapter seems awkward and I’m not sure how to fix it, but here you go. 
> 
> Also, congrats to Rami Malek on his Oscar win last night!!

Word of advice to anyone who was interested, don’t try to initiate a serious relationship just two weeks before setting off on a world tour. Because that’s just a really stupid idea.  
  
It was just two days before King was going to embark on a one-and-a-half-month world tour that Melina remembered that this would probably be important information for Jamie to know. She was just so used to everyone in her life knowing about the constant touring that it had genuinely slipped her mind that Jamie might not know what to do. Well, better late to bring it up than never.  
  
And that’s how Melina found herself dialing Jamie’s workplace at ten-thirty in the morning, tapping her leg frantically as she willed someone to pick up.  
  
“Hello?” The voice that finally answered sounded so lifeless that Melina actually checked the clock near her bedside drawer to make sure she hadn’t actually called several hours too early on accident. But no, ten-thirty just as she had believed.  
  
“Hello,” Melina answered in a much livelier voice, though this was due more to stress than positivity. “I was wondering if I could speak to a Miss Jamie Hutton?”  
  
“This is Melina Mercury, isn’t it?” The voice on the other end brightened up considerably and Melina finally recognized it as the secretary from the other day, which made sense. “I’d know that voice anywhere. Though that says more about your voice than my vocal recognition ability, to be fair.” The woman began to ramble on and on, and the more she spoke, the more frantic Melina’s tapping got. “I’ll go get her,” she said finally.  
  
The phone went silent for several seconds and Melina, calming herself now that she knew things were moving along, tried to stop flinging her arms around.  
  
“Melina, hello? Is everything alright?” Jamie’s voice came onto the other line with worry. Melina tried to focus, and not think about how her heart glowed at Jamie’s concern.  
  
“Yes, dear, everything is fine. There was just something urgent I needed to tell you. I’m not sure it could have waited much longer than this,” Melina said.  
  
“Okay,” Jamie said, letting out a loud breath into the telephone that suggested that she had probably sprinted from wherever she was to get to the phone.  
  
Melina was overcome with the realization that anything she would have said would have made her feel stupid for getting the other woman all worked up.  
  
“King is setting out on tour for the year in two days. I honestly have no idea how it slipped my mind to tell you, but it does derail things quite a bit. I wanted to know if you wanted to come for some of it. Or, at the very least, even if you didn’t, at least you would know where I was,” Melina said in a bit of a rush.  
  
“Oh,” Jamie said, clearly not expecting that to be the message. “Well, that’s a lot to spring on someone at once. Can I call you back after work? So I can think it over, and you can give me more information? I’m with someone right now and they’re glaring at me from the styling chair for taking too long,” Jamie laughed.  
  
“Oh yes, of course. I just knew that if I didn’t tell you now, something would inevitably come up and I would have to call you from Belgium to let you know,” Melina waved a hand, though of course the other woman couldn’t see.  
  
“Okay, I get off at five. I’ll call you when I get back home. See you,” Jamie said, and then hung up the phone. Melina kept the phone held up to her ear for several moments, listening to the annoying buzz until it became too much, and she pressed the off button.  
  


Jamie, true to her word, called Melina about an hour after five.  
  
Melina, who turned on the television in order to convince Pete that she was not waiting by the phone like a woman waiting for her husband to return from the war, let the phone ring twice before running and picking it up.  
  
“Hello?” She answered brightly.  
  
“Hey Melina,” Regina answered from the other end. “I need to ask you something.”  
  
“Regina, I need to keep the line open,” Melina shouted, as if Regina was supposed to know this somehow. “Call me later.” And then she hung up.  
  
She stood by the counter for a few seconds before the phone rang again.  
  
“You know, I really don’t appreciate-”  
  
Melina hung up the phone again. Regina took the hint this time, but Melina knew she was going to be getting an earful the next time the drummer decided to call.  
  
After another ten minutes of Melina standing by the counter, the phone rang again.  
  
“Hello?” Melina answered, more cautious this time around.  
  
“Um, hi. It’s me. Jamie,” Jamie answered, clearly thrown off by Melina’s reluctant tone.  
  
“Yes, hello,” Melina greeted, forcing more enthusiasm into her voice. The phone went silent, neither woman sure how to begin the brief conversation they had started several hours ago.  
  
“So the tour,” Jamie said. “I just have some questions. How long is it? Where are you going? You know, things like that.”  
  
“Well, I’m not sure if I can list all the dates off the top of my head,” Melina admitted. “But I do know that we’re touring around the UK first, and Ireland is going to be one of the first dates. You could arrange to see your family right after,” she suggested, knowing that Jamie was still close to her gaggle of siblings.  
  
“That sounds quite nice actually,” Jamie mused. “I’d love to come to some of the shows, not all of them, of course. I think if I suggested taking more than two weeks off of work my boss would laugh in my face before killing me.”  
  
“Well, I could always find something for you to do to get paid,” Melina suggested, not sure if she was making a joke or not. “You could become an assistant for the band. We could fire Paula, I’m sure the girls would love that,” Melina continued, laughing harder the farther along she got. Jamie laughed along lightly, but wisely, did not respond. “As for length, we go for about a month and a half, and then there’s a break. And then we pick up again for another month.” Melina recited everything she could remember about the tour details. Honestly, planning tour venues was out of Melina’s expertise and interest. She paid other people to worry about those details.  
  
The two eventually decided on a plan, Jamie was going to take off for the first week of the tour. She would stay around for four of the shows, but when King left Ireland she would stay behind, catch up with family, before heading back home. They would talk more over the phone and get into the details if Jamie wanted to fly over for any particular weekend before the band came back to England. Melina offered to pay a doctor to write Jamie a note to give to her boss so she could come to more shows, and Jamie hadn’t actually said no, yet.

When Jamie got out of the car Melina had ordered to personally chauffer her to the airport, Melina was horrified to see that she only brought one suitcase with her. Jamie apparently did not detect this in Melina’s face, because she just smiled brightly and waved at Melina from a distance.  
  
“Are you ready to go?” Melina asked, trying to subtly check and see if Jamie at least had a backpack with her. No such luck.  
  
“Of course,” Jamie said, rolling the solitary bag behind her. They did not kiss, as they were in relative public, and instead elected on a brief side-hug. Melina looked down at the bag again.  
  
“But you only have one bag,” she pointed out, unable to help herself.  
  
“Well, there’s four outfits in here, for the four days we’re travelling. And my mother has a washing machine in her home so I figured I could do some laundry and save some space. And there’s toiletries too, of course. But there isn’t much else I need, do I?” She asked. Melina stared at her with wide eyes before shaking her head.  
  
“I suppose not. Come on, our plane is just over here,” Melina said, as if Jamie would need any help locating a plane. “There’s a few things I need to tell you about before we get on,” she warned, turning around. Jamie just nodded.  
  
‘Hit me.”  
  
“Well, first warning, Paula is going to be on the plane with us. Ignore anything she says to you. Don’t engage unless you feel comfortable. I’ll try my best to get between you two before anything happens, though,” Melina began.  
  
“God, Melina. You make it sound like she’s a wild animal. I’ve met her before, technically. A little bitchy but relatively harmless,” Jamie shrugged her shoulders. Melina snorted at that.  
  
“Okay, and the other thing. I’m not going to be around you much once we get back on the ground. Paparazzi and all. I might walk away from you or pretend like I don’t know you well. I need to know that you’re okay with this, and that you know that I’m not doing it to hurt you,” Melina said, her eyes blazing with intensity.  
  
“Melina, I understand,” Jamie said, just as fiercely. “Believe it or not I have no desire to appear on the front page of some tabloid headline, either.”  
Melina’s body finally softened and the smile returned to her face.  
  
“Let’s go then!” She cheered, telling one of the men waiting by the plane to grab Jamie’s luggage. Jamie argued that she could handle it but eventually relented when the man refused to move his hands.  
  
Melina climbed up the plane stairs and Jamie followed suit. On board, Jamie recognized the rest of the band, two of them sitting with men who must have been their husbands or boyfriends, and Pete Freestone. She felt a wave of relief wash over her when she realized that she had at least a few friendly faces she could recognize, and didn’t have to rely solely on Melina.  
  
Melina held a hand out for Jamie to take the seat behind Regina, and then sat down next to her. Regina turned around and sat up on her knees to look over at them.  
  
“Hello, you two,” she greeted, dressed more casually than Jamie had ever seen her. “Good to see that Melina hasn’t scared you away yet, Jamie.”  
  
Melina rolled her eyes but decided to not dignify that comment with a response. The man sitting next to Regina leaned around the seat to shake Jamie’s hand.  
  
“I’m Dominick,” he greeted. Even though Jamie wasn’t into that kind of thing, she could tell that he was objectively a handsome man, even if she thought that Regina was obviously much more attractive.  
  
“I’m Jamie,” she responded.  
  
“Oh, believe me. I know,” he laughed. “Regina’s already told me the whole story.”  
  
Melina glared up at Regina who just shrugged her shoulders and sat back down in the seat.  
  
“Get a life of your own,” Melina demanded, kicking the back of Regina’s seat. Jamie laughed as Regina turned back around with an outraged look on her face. She was going to say something more but suddenly stopped when she got a look at Melina. Her eyes had suddenly widened in panic. Jamie turned to follow her eyesight and saw that Paula had boarded the plane.  
  
“Wonderful,” Regina muttered under her breath, shrinking down so that Paula didn’t notice her. “Wait, does she know?” Her head spun to Melina, pointing her finger between Jamie and her.  
  
“No,” Melina hissed back.  
  
“And you clearly haven’t thought about what you were going to tell her,” Regina pointed out, looking at Jamie from the corner of her eye.  
  
“I have thought about it,” Melina defended. “I just didn’t come up with a good answer.”  
  
So everything was going to be on the fly. Alright, Jamie had dealt with worse.  
  
Paula finally reached the back of the plane, clearly trying to sit near Melina. The smile on her lips died the second she made eye contact with Jamie. The rest of the plane seemed to be holding their breath, not wanting to contribute any more tension to the moment.  
  
“Hello,” she greeted, clearly intending for Melina to fill her in on what was going on.  
  
“Hello,” Melina said back, not elaborating. “Grab a seat, the plane’s going to take off soon.”  
  
Paula could hear the dismissal in her voice, and grabbed the empty seat diagonal from Jamie and Melina. The others uneasily drifted back into their conversations as it became clear that there was going to be no big confrontation.  
  
Melina gave Jamie an obviously fake smile as she took a deep breath, trying to make Jamie laugh. Jamie just smiled back at her, before turning around to look out the window for the first time. The plane was leaving early, so Jamie could just see the briefest hints of the sun peaking over the horizon. She wished she had remembered to bring a camera.  
  
A few minutes later, just as Melina said, the plane took off. Jamie felt something touch her shoulder and looked over from the window to see that Melina had fallen asleep, her head drooping entirely onto Jamie. Though she was sure the other woman would not want to hear this, Jamie thought she looked absolutely precious. It was true that people did look much younger when they slept, none of the stress tended to read on their faces. She smiled to herself as she stroked Melina’s hair absentmindedly, before deciding that sleep didn’t sound like a bad idea, either.  
  


Jamie wasn’t sure what time it was when she woke up, feeling drowsy and even worse than when she had fallen asleep. She noticed with horror that she had drooled a little, and the saliva was dangerously close to falling onto Melina’s hair. She quickly wiped at her chin and looked around to see if anybody saw her.   
  
That’s when she noticed Paula.  
  
Paula was staring directly into Jamie’s eyes, and Jamie quickly looked away, alarmed. Had Paula just been staring at the two of them the entire time?  
Melina, disturbed by Jamie’s movements, began to stir as well. She opened one eye first and squinted against the light. Slowly she raised her head up and turned to Jamie.  
  
“Are you alright?” she asked in a whisper, noticing the stress in Jamie’s face.  
  
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine,” Jamie reassured, shaking her head quickly. She didn’t want to tell Melina about Paula, who she had noticed out of the corner of her eye had finally looked down at the book she was holding. She wasn’t sure if she didn’t tell Melina because she didn’t want to admit to being freaked out, or if she was just trying to avoid another awkward confrontation so early on.  
  
Melina didn’t seem convinced but did not call Jamie out.  
  
Jamie looked out the window again to see that the plane was already climbing downwards, signaling that they must be landing soon. She watched as the ant-sized buildings and trees grew bigger and bigger until the plane landed on the ground with a thud. She heard Melina humming to herself as they screeched to a stop, and everyone got up and began stretching.  
  
“Are you ready to go?” Melina asked, gently. Jamie nodded with a smile and unbuckled her seatbelt. She noticed that Melina had never even put the seatbelt on to begin with.  
  
“Oh great,” Brianna said, the first to reach the plane exit. She peered around the corner before pulling her head back in to address the rest of the group. “The papz are here.” Jamie heard several people groan in response, and even heard Regina mumble something under her breath about life-sucking leeches.  
  
“Do you remember what I said before we got onto the plane?” Melina asked her, taking her hand. Jamie nodded. “Okay. So I’m going to go ahead with the rest of the girls. You can stay back and Pete’ll take good care of you,” she said, dipping her head towards Pete, who waved. Jamie nodded her head to show that she understood.  
  
She watched through the plane window as Melina stepped out behind Regina, walking down the plane steps. Men and women were firing their cameras off furiously, as the band acted like they couldn’t see them. Jamie assumed she was just biased when she noticed that her eyes were continuously drawn towards Melina, but she noticed after a minute that that seemed to be where most of the cameras were pointed as well. Jamie wasn’t sure how Melina handled it all, especially not with such grace.  
  
Pete finally broke her concentration with a light tap to the shoulder. Jamie took that as her cue to exit the plane. Pete handed her some of the loose equipment that had been left behind.  
  
“It makes you look more like part of the crew,” she explained, holding two bags of her own.  
  
Jamie took a deep breath and stepped out of the plane. She was relieved to see that most of the paparazzi had followed after the band, and the few that had stuck behind to watch the rest of the plane did not seem to be taking pictures.  
  


The group had finally been transported to a grand hotel, a nicer one than Jamie had ever stepped foot in. Someone had already checked in for them, and they huddled into the elevator in small groups. Jamie’s room was on the seventh level. She handed Pete her luggage for a moment as she fumbled with the room key, missing three times before finally unlocking the door.  
  
There was a single room, with two double beds taking up the majority of the space, and a bathroom off to the side. Jamie looked out the window for a moment and saw a nice view of the city down below.  
  
A door, different to the one Jamie had walked through, opened. Jamie jumped back in fear for a moment, worried she had somehow walked into the wrong room. But instead, out popped Melina.  
  
“I forgot to explain this part,” Melina said, laughing at Jamie’s shocked expression. “This is a suite-style set-up. We knew it would look too suspicious to have me inexplicably share a bedroom with someone from the crew. So you and Pete walk through this door, and I walk through the other door. But you can come through here, and everyone on the outside will be none the wiser,” she explained. “So come on over.”  
  
Jamie walked through the small door that lead to Melina’s room. She noticed immediately that it was much better than the room she had just been in. The room was again dominated by a bed, but this time it was a lovely king-sized bed with an elaborately decorated headboard. The windows opened up to a small balcony overlooking a fountain near the heart of the city.  
  
“This is nicer,” Jamie commented before sitting on the bed. She jumped up and down to test the mattress, and noticed it was much softer than the one she had at home. She bent over to take her shoes off before leaning back onto the bed. Melina flopped onto the bed besides her.  
  
“Our tour doesn’t officially start until tomorrow afternoon,” Melina informed her as she propped her head onto her elbows. “Today’s an adjustment day. We’re free all night. Any ideas?”  
  
Jamie knew exactly what Melina was implying and was suddenly very glad she had taken that nap on the plane.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, bit of an info-dump chapter. But in other news, I've gotten the final chapter of this fic about 90% written, so I'm glad to know I have a general idea of where this story is going lol
> 
> As always, criticism is welcome, and you can find me at jimhuttonlesbian.tumblr.com, see you!


	11. guide me back safely to my home where i belong

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which some days are just destined for dramatic confessions all around

One of the side-effects of being relatively young and smitten with somebody is that any time spent with them will be over too soon. Melina felt as if the tour had only just started when Jamie was leaving to go back home to her mother’s.

Jamie had insisted on paying for a regular taxi to take her back home, entirely against the idea of Melina running around trying to find someone on the crew to do it for her. Melina had tried to talk her out of it but Jamie was nothing if not stubborn. Melina eventually let up but decided that she was going to wait with Jamie for the taxi outside.

They had said their official goodbyes in the hotel room, Melina had pinned Jamie down and kissed her all over until Jamie finally swatted her away, the two of them laughing.

And now, they were waiting, Jamie with all of her luggage under her arms, trying to look casual. Melina had bought her a second suitcase the day prior, and stuffed it with items she insisted were essentials, leaving Jamie with a lot more than she had ever intended to carry. Melina had a pair of sunglasses on, and somehow, they seemed to be working. No one had approached her and there wasn’t a single camera in sight. They chattered idly with one another until the taxi finally pulled up to the curb.

Melina held the door open for Jamie, who began clumsily maneuvering her luggage into the backseat, waving off the drivers attempts to help her.

“Okay, then. That’s it,” Jamie said, taking the door from Melina’s hand.

“You know you’re free to come to any of the shows. I can arrange transportation for you in an instant,” Melina reminded Jamie, as if they hadn’t had this exact conversation an hour before upstairs.

“I know,” Jamie said.

“And you know that it may be a bit difficult to get in contact with me with all the moving around, but I will call you to let you know the hotels we’re staying at,” Melina continued on.

“Yes, Melina, I know,” Jamie’s voice was exasperated but fond. “It’s going to be fine. I’ll call you after I make it to my mothers. It’s going to be alright,” she soothed. Melina just huffed in response.

“I’ll talk to you soon,” she said, her voice rapidly shifting into something more vulnerable.

“Take care,” Jamie said, scooting into the backseat of the taxi.

“Goodbye, love you,” she called out, shutting the door for Jamie.

The two waved at each other as the driver sped off, and it was only until he had rounded the corner that Jamie realized what Melina had said.  
  


The trip to her mother’s house was entirely uneventful. The driver had asked her what radio station she wanted to listen to but she told him it didn’t matter. He shrugged his shoulders and turned to a station Jamie didn’t recognize. The music droned on and Jamie entertained herself by counting the literal sheep they drove past.

“Now this next song is the latest single off of King’s most recent album _The Works_. King is just finishing a three-day run here in Ireland, they did their last show in Dublin yesterday night. I went to their second show and I have to say, they have absolutely still got it. I know some people want to claim they’re a thing of the seventies, but those people haven’t seen them live,” the radio announcer came on after the last song finished, startling Jamie. She let out a short laugh, and covered her mouth. The cab driver eyed her through the rearview mirror.

“Now, I know I probably shouldn’t say anything,” he began. “But was that Melina Mercury you were talking to back there?”

Jamie tensed up. The driver already knew the answer, but she also didn’t know how much of the conversation he had heard. Admitting that Melina Mercury had just told another woman she loved her could be very dangerous. But Jamie had never been much of a liar.

“No,” she said, too quickly. “She gets that a lot.”  
  


By the time Jamie had reached her mother’s house, her head was swimming. She had so much she needed to talk about, but she couldn’t talk to her family. She couldn’t talk to Melina, either. She tried to morph her face into a calm mask as she handed the driver his money and exited the taxi. She lugged all of her luggage to the front porch and knocked three times.

The door opened, revealing her mother’s excited face. She cried out as a welcome and tackled Jamie into a hug. Jamie tried to reciprocate as best she could with the bags in her hand.  
  


The afternoon that followed was a bit of a blur to Jamie. She had moved her things into her old room, much emptier now than it had ever been, and met her mother at the dining room table to talk. Jamie kept things pretty casual. She talked idly about her job at the barber shop, a television show she had watched a couple episodes of, a stray cat that had started visiting her apartment. In turn, Jamie’s mother filled her in on what some of her siblings had been doing. Apparently, one of them was getting married next spring. It was that specific conversational topic where things took a turn.

“So, do you think you’ll have someone to bring as a date for the wedding?” her mother asked in what she probably thought was a nonchalant voice.

“I don’t think so,” Jamie shrugged, taking a sip of her drink to cover her mouth.

“That’s not a definite no,” her mother pointed out, her eyes brightening. “Tell me about him,” she demanded.

“I haven’t mentioned a guy,” Jamie cried out.

“Honey, I’m your mother. I can see it on your face that there’s something going on,” her mother said with a smile, while Jamie felt her throat tighten. “Tell me about him.”

And something inside of her told her that she had finally had enough. She didn’t know if it was spurned on by the idea that she could leave the country and go back home if things went wrong, or the fact that she was well into her thirties and knew she was ready. Or maybe, a tiny voice in her head considered, something about Melina just made her feel brave.

“You’re right. I am seeing someone. We met a couple weeks ago at a house party. Her name is Melina. And I think I love her.”

The words echoed in the small dining room. Neither woman spoke for a moment. Jamie returned to her drink and her mother’s eyes did not look away.

“Tell me more about her,” her mother said at last. She knew this was not technically an admission of acceptance, but Jamie could have cried anyways.

“She’s beautiful, mom. She’s the most beautiful person I have ever met. And I don’t mean that in terms of looks, I just mean that she’s got the most beautiful soul I’ve ever seen. She’s a singer. And she just lights up every room she enters. And she’s so kind. It’s hard for me to believe someone like her even exists,” the words spilled out of Jamie in a bit of a mess, her mind trying to fathom how to quantify someone like Melina into words.   

Her mother looked at her for a long moment.

“I’m not going to pretend this isn’t a shock for me,” she began, her voice slow as if she were choosing each word carefully. “But losing your father put a lot of things in perspective for me and I’ll be damned if I lose you, too. Not for something like this. You tell this Melina that she is free to stay in my house anytime she wants. I’d love to meet her.”

Jamie got out of her seat and grabbed her mother close to her. She didn’t know how long she stayed sitting in her mother’s lap like a child, but she didn’t care.  


Paula waited several hours before Jamie left to talk to Melina. Melina opened the door to her hotel room, her hair a bit of a mess, as if she’d been clutching at it.

“Oh hello, Paula. Did you need anything?” Melina greeted.

“Just wanted to say hello. We haven’t spoken in a couple of days,” Paula shrugged. Melina hummed in response, raising an eyebrow.

“Well, okay. I had an idea I needed to get down, but feel free to wait,” she said, gesturing to the notebook she had resting on her bed, a half-filled page facing up. Paula nodded in agreement and joined Melina on the king-sized bed. She propped herself up against the headboard as Melina sat crisscrossed at the foot.

The two didn’t speak for a while, the only noise in the room was Melina humming and occasionally whispering a lyric out loud to get the feel of the sound. Paula didn’t mind. She, like so many others, was mesmerized by Melina. She couldn’t help it.

“How does this sound?” Melina asked, startling Paula. She didn’t wait for Paula to say anything before singing out a little ditty. _“My baby cares, she really cares, she knows what's really right for me, does me good then she hurts me so, she winds me up then lets me go, turns me on and then tells me no,”_ she sang.

“Good,” Paula nodded her head. “I like the way the beat sounds, it’s good.” Melina just nodded, as if she already knew what the answer was going to be.

“We’re going to have to change the lyrics obviously. ‘My baby does me, he really cares.’ Something like that.” Melina shook her head.

“Imagine one day being able to release a song with the proper pronouns,” Paula said, tilting her head. Melina’s face was practically glowing at that. Paula, excited with the change in demeanor, leaned forwards a bit. Before she could say anything else, there was another knock on the door, this time from the suite entrance.  

Melina got off the bed, and opened the door to see Pete Freestone.

“There seems to be a bit of a confusion with the hotel. I think they believe your room is mine. There’s someone on the phone looking for a Miss Bulsara,” Pete explained, gesturing over her shoulder to the phone by her bedside. Melina groaned but walked over to the other room, anyways. Pete closed the door behind her.

Paula was left sitting alone on Melina’s very nice bed, her brain whirring.  


“Hello?” She answered, knowing it was either her mother or her father.

“Meherokh,” she heard her father greet over the other end. Melina sighed, not bothering to correct him knowing that no one else could hear them. “Your mother wished to know if you were coming over for tea this Saturday. She missed you last week.”

“Papa,” Melina laughed. “Mum must have just forgotten again. I’m not in England right now, I’m going to be in Germany on Saturday.”

“What are you doing in Germany?” Her father demanded.

“It’s just for work. I told mum I’d be travelling the next two months but that I’d call. I promise I’ll come ‘round as soon as I get back home,” Melina said, subtly trying to indicate with her voice that she wanted to hang up and return to her songwriting.

“You haven’t forgotten your brother’s wedding, have you?” Her father asked, either not getting Melina’s hint or not caring.

“Of course not. Kash’s wedding is in three months, I’ll be back in London by then. There’s no need to worry,” Melina reassured. She thought she heard her father tut in the background. “And I really need to go back to work now,” Melina said. “I love you,” and with that she hung up the phone.

She huffed a sigh of relief and turned to look at Pete, who was reading a book on her bed.

“I love my family,” she said, prompting Pete to bookmark her page with her finger and look up. “But if I can’t escape them even from another country, I’m not sure what I’ll do.” Pete knew Melina was just trying to make a joke, and she could sense an uneasiness in her voice but, having only heard one side of the conversation, she could only guess at the cause. Melina rubbed her eyes and stood back up.

“Thank you for getting me,” she said before returning back to her room. When she returned, she found Paula looking out the balcony window, clearly lost in thought and unaware that Melina had reentered her room. Melina sneaked quietly to the bed, curious to see how long it would take Paula to notice.

Paula stayed staring at the window for several moments. The light from the sun was causing a shadow to fall through and was casting her into a silhouette. Melina flipped her notebook and idly began sketching out the image. She had made it to the shoulders before Paula turned back around and jumped. Melina snickered to herself, flipping her book back to the lyrics page.

Paula returned to the bed with wide eyes, clearly still shaken.

“Bulsara?” She asked, causing Melina to tense up.

“You weren’t stupid enough to think I was born with the last name Mercury, were you?” Melina snapped, not sure why she felt so on edge.

“Of course not,” Paula defended, raising her arms. “I just never knew what it was. Bulsara,” she said the name again, as if testing it out on her tongue. “I like it,” she said, at last.

“The first concert I ever played with the rest of the band, way back when, Brianna couldn’t pronounce it. She just kept stuttering in front of this crowd of students, who already didn’t trust me because I wasn’t the original lead singer, and because I didn’t look much like her either. I had never thought it was that hard to pronounce until I came to England,” Melina said, lost in thought.

“She probably should have tried to pronounce it out loud first, before trying it out in front of a group of people,” Paula said, raising an eyebrow.

Melina just stared at her and tried to ignore the fact that what Paula said was exactly what she thought to herself that same day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Several comments on the last chapter: ugh paula I hate her go away  
> Me, eyeing the draft of this chapter: …… yeaaahhhhhh about that! 
> 
> lol but more seriously… I’ve noticed a tendency (I’m guilty of it too) to make Paul out to be this irredeemable monster who lives to cause pain for others. We do this bc we know how the story between Paul and Freddie turned out; Paul manipulated Freddie for years before betraying him to the press. But here’s the thing: if Paul was overtly evil the entire time, Freddie wouldn’t have trusted him. It was a betrayal because Freddie genuinely cared about Paul as a person, he was someone Freddie trusted for nearly a decade. Paul Prenter was a whole-ass human being with complicated emotions and motivations. This doesn’t justify what he did, but we do everyone a disservice by pretending he wasn’t. 
> 
> But anyways, hope you enjoyed the chapter. If Paula freaks you out too much (understandably) just try to focus on Jamie and Melina finally starting to be able to admit how they feel! Things are moving along!


	12. don't try to show your feelings, step carefully

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which heterosexuality is a shackle that contains us all

“Melina, please tell me you are not actually this stupid,” Miami stormed into the room as soon as Paula had gotten up to open the door. Her and Melina were sitting at the table in Melina’s room that the hotel provided and eating breakfast.

Miami tossed a newspaper onto the table, and Melina pulled it towards her with a single finger. Paula leaned over her shoulder as she read the headline.  
  
TELL-ALL OF MELINA’S NEW LESBIAN LOVER  
  
Miami stood above her as she skimmed through the article, an eyebrow raised. It didn’t say much, only that the cab driver from the day before went to the press with a claim that Melina had had a tearful goodbye with the woman in the backseat, and that they had passionately kissed as they were separated from one another.  
Miami stared at her intently waiting for her to say something, but Melina just returned to her breakfast cereal.  
  
“Did you really kiss a woman in broad daylight with people clearly around you?” Miami asked, crossing her arms. “Don’t lie to me, I know you waited for the taxi yesterday morning.”  
  
“For the record, no. I did not. But why are you making such a fuss over it?” Melina said, throwing her spoon forcefully back into her cereal bowl, causing the milk to splash onto the table. “This man clearly had no proof, it’s just his own words.”  
  
“But people read these types of things, Melina. And it’s bad for business. The second the truth comes out in a reputable source is the second we say goodbye to half of our ticket sales. People don’t want to know that their favorite singer is a-” she cut herself off.  
  
“Is a what?” Melina asked, and Paula looked up as well. “You know, you’re getting awfully offended about this entire thing.”  
  
“It doesn’t matter,” Miami continued. “And you know I don’t care about this at all except for the business. We need to fix this.”  
  
Melina and Paula eyed each other.  
  
“How?”  
  
“Mark Austin,” Miami said, simply, causing Melina to tense up. “The next time you go out in public, have Mark fly down. Hold his hand, smile a bit. People wont worry about the newspaper article anymore.”  
  
“Don’t you think that’s a little bit unfair to Mark?” Melina asked. _And to me…_  
  
“Then find some other man you trust,” Miami said, walking back out of the room. Melina barely waited until she shut the door before picking up the bowl of cereal, still full of milk, and flinging it at the wall. The glass shattered with a satisfying crash. Paula went to go pick up the shards.  
  
“Tell me this doesn’t piss you off,” Melina demanded to Paula’s hunched over form.  
  
“From a managerial position, I understand. But, in every other way, it is infuriating, yeah,” Paula said, throwing the shards in her hand into the trashcan. “But think about it this way, if you get the press off of your back, you’re protecting her from all the scandal. And yourself too, of course.”  
  
Melina, suspicious that Paula was suddenly encouraging her relationship with Jamie, just nodded slowly. They heard a knock at the door and Melina got up to answer it.  
  
“I heard a bang from down the hallways. Just wanted to make sure everything was alright,” Jane greeted, peeping around the doorway to examine the room.  
  
“Everything’s fine. I just threw something at the wall because Miami called me a dyke and told me I need to start dating men for the sake of the band,” Melina explained.  
  
“I assume that’s a slight exaggeration,” Jane said.  
  
“Only slightly,” Melina defended as Paula snorted behind her.  
  
“Okay. Good to know. Also, I’m pregnant again,” Jane informed her.  
  
“Okay,” Melina said. The two girls nodded at each other for a moment before Jane walked away. Melina shut the door behind her with an audible bang.  
  
“Miami should be lucky that I’m not dating men,” Melina cried, taking all her frustrations out on Paula who watched her calmly from Melina’s bed. “At least I’m one less person to get pregnant and fuck up the band schedules.”  
  
Paula watched Melina pace around the room, ranting, before she collapsed onto the bed, heaving a dramatic sigh. She put a hand on Melina’s shoulder.  
“None of them get it,” she said. (Not like I do)  
  


Melina flopped her head onto the bedside drawer as she held the phone to her ear, dialing Mark. The phone rang for about thirty seconds and Melina was sure it was going to cut to voicemail, but Mark finally answered.  
  
“Hello?” He asked, a little out of breath.  
  
“Mark?” Melina asked. “It’s Melina.”  
  
“Of course it is,” Mark sighed, and Melina winced at the tone, guessing that this was not going to be a pleasant conversation. “Sorry, that’s not what I meant. I just meant, I recognized your voice. Not that I… never mind. How are you?”  
  
“I’m doing well. Listen, I’m going to ask you something and you have every right in the world to say no. It’s just that, I trust you and if I’d want anyone for this, I’d want it to be you,” Melina said, knowingly laying it on a bit thick.  
  
“Alright…” Mark sounded nervous.  
  
“On the night we ended our engagement, I trusted you with something I trust with very few people,” Melina began. This was manipulating the truth a little bit. At this point in time, Regina, Brianna, Jane, Pete, Jamie, Miami, Paula, King’s boyfriends/husbands and some random Irish taxi-driver all knew as well, but whatever worked worked. “And it’s not something that I want everybody to know right now, only the people I care about. And I was wondering-”  
  
“If I could fly down and pretend we’re still in love for a couple days,” Mark cut her off, finishing her sentence for her.  
  
“Yes,” Melina said, seeing no point in trying to lie. “But as I said, you have every right to say no.”  
  
The phone went silent for a long moment and Melina began to worry that the hotel service was bad enough to cut them off.  
  
“I have next Tuesday and Wednesday off from work. I could come down for those two days,” Mark said at last. Melina let out a huge gasp of relief.  
  
“I’ll arrange a car to take you to the airport,” Melina reassured him. “Thank you,” she said as Mark hung up the phone. She leaned back onto the bed and looked up at Paula who was still there, because Paula seemingly never had anything better to do. In all honesty, all she wanted to do at that moment was call Jamie and let her know everything that was going on, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to do that with Paula watching her from the bed. Something about that just didn’t feel right.  
  


Three days later, Jamie came downstairs to grab breakfast and saw her mother reading some trashy tabloid newspaper as she ate her toast. She shook her head but decided not to say anything as she grabbed an apple and joined her mother at the table.  
  
Just as she took a bite, her mother let out an involuntary snort. And then a second one.  
  
“Why do you read those things, mom?” Jamie finally asked.  
  
“It’s just a bit of entertainment to brighten the morning,” her mother defended. “I know it’s garbage but honestly. See, look at this one,” she said as she slid the paper across the table. Jamie put her apple down and picked the tabloid up. Her grip on it tightened as she saw the picture spread across the left side of the page. It was Melina, clear as day, holding hands with someone as she walked into a restaurant. Jamie squinted her eyes at the man and realized it was the man who came by Melina’s house a week ago, Melina’s ex-fiancé.  
  
Jamie knew, logically, that this was one of the publicity stunts Melina had mentioned. Something to keep the public eye away from Melina’s sexuality. But still, the sight of it burned inside her more fiercely than she had expected. She put the paper down, not bothering to read whatever the untrue story had to say on the next page.  
  
“What about it?” Jamie asked, not entirely sure what she was supposed to say, and wondering why her mother thought the story was so funny.  
  
“Well, it’s clearly a load of nonsense. That woman is the biggest lesbian I’ve ever seen. I may not have sensed it with you, but if she’s not secretly sleeping with women on the side, I’ll eat my hat.”  
  
Jamie’s brain shut down.  
  
And then she began laughing, throwing her head into her hands as she tried to breathe, her chest heaving.  
  
“Honey, what is it?” Her mother asked after about thirty seconds, the concern evident in her voice when her daughter didn’t seem to let up. “What’s so funny?”  
  
“Nothing, it’s just,” Jamie tried again before she was caught up in another fit of giggles. Slowly, she began counting in her head, trying to distract herself enough to stop. “Okay. Let’s try this,” Jamie said, holding up a finger. “What is the name of the woman you are talking about?”  
  
“Melina Mercury,” Jamie’s mother said, thoroughly confused, and hoping that if she went along with her daughter things would start making sense.  
  
“Okay. And you think Melina Mercury is a lesbian,” Jamie said, her mother nodding in confirmation, beginning to get worried. “Just like I am,” Jamie continued on. “Okay, mom, final question. When I told you about my girlfriend the other night, what did I say her name was?”  
  
Jamie’s mother sat back for a moment, trying to remember the answer. Jamie could tell the second she had figured it out because her eyes widened and her mouth began to drop open. She saw her mother mouthing the name ‘Melina’ to herself and began to laugh again. Once she stopped, she waited for her mother to finally say something.  
  
“If you can get your girlfriend to play at your sister’s wedding, I think you’d definitely become your sister’s favorite,” her mother said, which was not what she was expecting. “I took a peek at some of her wedding plans and she and her husband were going to have ‘You Take My Breath Away’ as their first dance. Oh, could you imagine if it were the real thing?”  
  
Jamie hadn’t ever heard the song her mother mentioned, but it did not take a lot of thought to come to the conclusion that it was one of Melina’s band’s songs. She made a note to look it up when she got back home.  
  
Her mother picked the tabloid back up, and turned the page back to the picture of Melina and Mark. She stared at the image, as if really looking at it for the first time.  
  


As Jamie finished her apple, the phone rang. Her and her mother made eye contact, both thinking the same thing, before her mother finally got up and answered it. Their phone was placed directly in the bedroom. The sound was muffled, but you could definitely hear whoever was talking if they spoke loud enough.  
  
“Hello?” She asked. “Oh! Oh yes, of course, she’s right at the dinner table. I’ll go get her for you,” she heard her mother exclaim, her voice flustered. Well, that seemed to confirm Jamie’s suspicion about who was on the other end. “You know, I didn’t think you were lying,” her mother said to her as she got up to take the phone. Her hand was over the receiver so that nobody could hear her on the other end. “But if I did, that would have cleared it up right away. I would recognize that voice in a heartbeat.”  
  
Jamie’s mother was not the first person to get frenzied when in contact with Melina, and Jamie was sure that she would not be the last. She was beginning to appreciate why Melina seemed to care so much that Jamie didn’t know who she was when they met. But then again, having people catering to your every whim couldn’t be too much of a problem.  
  
Jamie rolled her eyes as her mother handed her the phone.  
  
“Hello, Melina,” she greeted. Her mother shook her head and left to return to the dining room, tabloid magazine still in hand. Jamie noticed that she bookmarked the page with Mark and Melina with her finger as she walked out of the room.  
  
“Hello,” Melina greeted warmly. “I’m sorry about the radio silence. I meant to call you earlier but I didn’t want to intrude on your family time. Especially considering how much of it you have.” Jamie knew she had a lot of siblings but she still didn’t think it was as big of a deal as people always made it out to be.  
  
“Thank you, but I haven’t seen most of them. I did drop in rather unannounced. I’ve mostly just been able to relax. You, on the other hand, seem to be a bit busy. Having fun with your boyfriend?” Jamie asked, her voice as casual as she could let it be so that Melina knew she wasn’t really angry. Because, truly, she wasn’t.  
  
“Shit,” Melina swore into the phone, and Jamie thought she heard someone laughing on her end. “I had hoped I could catch you before that reached you. It’s crazy how fast the press moves.”  
  
“Don’t worry about it. I get it. My mom was the one who saw it in the paper. She thought it was funny,” Jamie reassured.  
  
“How is your mother, then?” Melina sounded happy to change the topic to something a bit more banal.  
  
“Good, she’s doing well. Actually,” Jamie paused for a moment. “I told her.” Melina did not need to ask what that had meant.  
  
“And I’m assuming it went well, what with how your mother greeted me just a moment ago,” Melina said.  
  
“Yeah, I think almost fifteen years of building it up in my head made it seem like this monumental thing I’d never be able to do, but I realized that now was the time. And I told her. And it went better than I could have imagined. I just feel like there’s this huge weight that’s been lifted off of me,” Jamie rambled on, knowing that the other woman would know exactly what she meant.  
  
“That’s amazing,” Melina said, sounding like she meant every word of it. “I’m so proud of you.”  
  
“I’m just relieved,” Jamie said, honestly. “But really, how are you doing?”  
  
“It’s been a bit crazy. But tours are always the most chaotic, everyone moving around, different locations all the time. And I have a beard now, so there’s that,” Melina said, and for one stupid moment Jamie thought she was talking about facial hair.  
  
“This has got to be the strangest relationship I have ever been in,” Jamie mused to herself. She heard Melina cackle on the other end.  
  


As soon as Jamie hung up the phone, she heard her mother frantically call her into the living room. She hurried in, and saw that her mother was pointing at the television.  
  
“I found some old King tapes from your father while you were on the telephone,” she explained, her eyes on the picture covering the screen. Jamie stepped forwards to get a better look at the grainy image.  
  
She recognized Regina, Jane and Brianna almost instantly, their instruments helping somewhat. But she found it hard to believe that the frontwoman she was looking at was Melina. And from only just a few years ago.  
  
Oh, she definitely had Melina’s voice, alright. The woman onscreen was belting her heart out as intensely as Melina ever had, but her looks…  
  
She was wearing a tan jumpsuit, which was cute but much more conservative than Melina tended to go for during concerts. But that wasn’t what threw Jamie off.  
Jamie had never seen Melina with long hair, not even in pictures. And she of all people should know how drastically a haircut can change a person’s face, but this was just jarring. Her thick black hair fell past her shoulder in a wave, taking up nearly half her face. She genuinely looked like a different person.  
  
She was also so much more feminine than Jamie had ever seen, too. She had her right hand painted with black nail polish, she was wearing much more make-up than just eyeliner, and something about her just seemed… daintier. Jamie couldn’t place it but she felt an illogical urge to protect the woman onscreen.  
  
Jamie finally looked away from the television to see her mother grinning at her. The song ended, and Jamie could hear the audience clapping their hearts away. The lights dimmed for a moment before exploding into a ray of colors. When the camera panned back to Melina, she had untied the ribbon around her jumpsuit, letting it fall to the ground.  
  
What was left was the dreaded leotard Regina had mentioned all those days ago. This one was all white, and fitted to Melina as if it were a second layer of skin. Absolutely nothing was left to the imagination as Melina paraded around the stage. It especially didn’t help that the neckline of the jumpsuit seemed to finally kick in around Melina’s navel, exposing half of Melina’s chest and barely covering her actual breasts with any fabric.  
  
“Oh dear,” Jamie’s mother said with wide eyes. “I haven’t watched these movies in a few years.” Jamie noticed that her mother could not look away from the screen either. “You’re very lucky,” was all she said after that, as Jamie’s face began to heat up terribly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I cannot… imagine having someone like Melina running around in the outfits she did and having to just Live With That. Jamie is a much stronger woman than I am. 
> 
> Also, I finally figured out what the chapter length of this entire thing is going to be lol. It took way longer than it should have but what can you do? Hope y'all are doing well.


	13. let's turn it on, come on all you people get together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the moment finally comes that we’ve all been waiting for

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the *** in the middle is supposed to indicate a flashback, I tried to do it in italics but that much of it altogether just hurt my eyes lol

Melina swore that every tour she went on seemed to fly by faster and faster. The first tour, all those years ago, everything felt as if it were going in slow motion. It wasn’t that she was afraid she was going to mess up, exactly. It was more just that every moment felt as if it were going to be the most important moment in her life. Everything mattered so much to her, as much as she tried to pretend that it didn’t back in those days.  
  
But now, tour was over in the blink of an eye. Nine countries all by in a flash. Now all that was left was to celebrate.  
  


Jamie was initially a bit apprehensive when Melina had called her and invited her to their management’s end-of-tour celebration. She had never been a huge partier, and if history told her anything, it was that Melina was very much so.  
  
But Melina had pleaded with her, and promised to make it up to her later if she didn’t like it, so Jamie eventually surrendered. She had no idea how Melina already held so much power over her. Just a cute little pout in her voice and Jamie was putty in her hands.  
  
She wandered into the building with the address Melina had given her, and let out a sigh of relief when she saw that there seemed to be less than a hundred people in the room. Everybody had their clothes on and swayed along to the music playing over the speaker, as opposed to furiously headbanging and shouting. So they were already off to a better start than Melina’s houseparty trainwreck.  
  
Jamie scanned the room for Melina, but found herself making eye contact with Regina first. Regina charged over to her, champagne glass in hand. It was a miracle she didn’t spill any of it with how fast she was speeding over.  
  
“Jamie, Jamie, Jamie,” Regina chanted as if they were in a conga line. Well that glass in her hand was clearly not the first one she had. “How are you?” she asked, holding Jamie’s face in her free hand.  
  
“I’m doing well, Regina, thank you. How are you?” Jamie laughed. She waited a few seconds before peeling Regina’s hand away.  
  
“I’m doing great. The others may be getting too old for this touring shit, but not I,” she declared loudly.  
  
“Regina, please stop harassing my girlfriend,” Melina trilled in a voice that was more threatening than Jamie had ever heard a person sound while also singing in falsetto. Jamie turned to look at Melina for the first time, not understanding where she seemed to have popped out from, but not really bothering to care.  
  
This was the first time they had seen each other in a month. Jamie thought she would be prepared, pouring over their last interactions in her head as she walked to the party, but there really was nothing like the real thing.  
  
The first thing Jamie noticed was that Melina hadn’t seemed to have cut her hair since they had last spoke, and now her hair was beginning to cover her ears. She pulled her eyes down to Melina’s outfit, a multicolored pinstriped shirt and jeans, which was much more conservative than Jamie had expected. Melina noticed where Jamie’s eyes had traveled.  
  
“Well, management is here. Had to at least pretend I’m respectable,” she said with a wink. Jamie felt a surge of electricity run through her as Melina leaned in. Kissing your girlfriend was one thing. Kissing your girlfriend who you now know you’re hopelessly in love with? Another thing entirely.  
  
The kiss only lasted a second, but Jamie could still feel her heart hammering erratically well after Melina had pulled away.  
  
She had tried to plan how she was going to say the words officially to Melina. Melina had technically said them to her. But it was also just as they were saying farewells, it could have been one of those slips of the tongues, a hard-to-break habit. Like when you call your teacher ‘dad’ on accident and spend the rest of the day hating yourself.  
  
Jamie hoped it wasn’t so. But Melina hadn’t brought it up since, and Jamie was not one to make a fool of herself. Little did she know Melina was thinking the same thing.  
  


*** 

“I think I’ve done something wrong,” Melina confessed as she stormed into Regina’s room, after knocking on her door a total of nineteen times before being let it.  
  
“You probably have,” Regina nodded seriously. Melina glared at that but took a seat on Regina’s hotel bed anyways. “Would you like to tell me what?”  
  
“So last week when I dropped Jamie off with the taxi, as I was saying goodbye, I told her I loved her,” Melina said, plowing through her confession, knowing that Regina was going to try to speak up any second if the gleam in her eyes were any indication. “Just as a common farewell, it slipped out of my mouth. But she didn’t say it back, and I didn’t think anything of it, of course, it was very on the spot.”  
  
This was, in fact, a complete and total lie. Melina immediately ran back to her room the second the taxi pulled away, and screamed into a pillow for an entire ten minutes. It was a miracle her voice even worked well enough to perform that night.  
  
“So I decided to give Jamie her space, let her mull things over. But then, Miami comes in with the absolutely barmy idea to bring Mark back into the equation, and I go along with it. But because I’m an idiot, who doesn’t think to give my girlfriend a heads up, she learns about this from a tabloid magazine. At her mother’s house! And she still hasn’t said I love you back!”  
  
Regina, in a rare show of restraint, let Melina continue her rant without interruption. She waited a moment to make sure Melina had gotten it all entirely out of her system before speaking.  
  
“You know, I think you’re looking at this entirely the wrong way. I mean, sure. You probably should have told Jamie that your manager forced you to hold hands with your ex in public, which by the way, is a dick move. But how did she sound on the phone when you guys talked about it?”  
  
“She just made a joke. She honestly didn’t sound that angry,” Melina said, sounding unsure.  
  
“Well, there you go! And about the ‘I love you’ thing, you don’t need to worry about that at all. Just because she hasn’t said it yet, doesn’t mean it isn’t true. She could just be waiting for the right moment to say it herself. Or maybe she isn’t totally in love with you yet, but that doesn’t mean that she won’t be. Or that she doesn’t care about you. Because she clearly does.”  
  
Melina looked at her best friend for several moments.  
  
“You know, you’re smarter than everybody gives you credit for,” Melina said, pointing a finger as she got off of the bed and fished around through Regina’s minifridge.  
  
“I know,” Regina returned with a grin.  
  
***

“There’s a karaoke machine over to the left,” Melina pointed over her shoulder to the corner where someone Jamie didn’t recognize was rocking out to a Bowie song. An odd look, given that he was adorned in a very tight three-piece suit.  
  
“So there is,” Jamie nodded her head. Melina grinned at her.  
  
“What do I have to do to get you to go over there?” she asked. Jamie assumed she was kidding and laughed, but quickly realized she was deadly serious.  
“You’d have to pay me a million dollars,” Jamie said, before her eyes widened. “Oh no, wait. You’re actually a millionaire. Please. Don’t do that.”  
  
Melina and Regina both broke into hysterical tears at that, bending over in laughter. They gripped at each other to keep themselves from falling. A few second passed and Jamie found herself joining in as well.  
  
“You sell yourself short, dear,” Melina said, dabbing at her eyes with her thumb to stop any more tears from falling.  
  
“I’m not a singer. And I’m definitely not a performer,” Jamie said, waving her arms in a crisscross.  
  
“What if you and Melina did a duet!” Regina gasped in excitement.  
  
“Even worse. If I go up there with Melina, people would be able to tell exactly just how bad I am,” Jamie shouted. “There are professional singers that could sing against Melina and end up sounding like garbage.” Melina straightened up at that, and tried to make herself look like she wasn’t pleased with that comment. She did not do well.  
  
“I’ll get you to sing,” Melina vowed.  
  


An hour into the party and Melina still had not gotten Jamie to sing. If Melina was any other person, Jamie would have hoped that she would have just forgotten it by now. But Melina was indeed the person she was dating, which meant that she was determined to get what she wanted.  
  
However, Jamie was the one who eventually convinced Melina to dance with her, after three drinks. She wasn’t going to let anyone hear her singing voice, but at least Jamie was confident enough to know that Melina was just as bad of a dancer as she was. She had seen her girlfriend onstage. Melina looked like someone getting electrocuted half the time.  
  
“You know this song,” Melina guessed as she let Jamie tug her onto the dance floor.  
  
“I love this song,” Jamie corrected, beginning to shake her head wildly. As the chorus hit, Jamie took Melina’s arms and began to frantically spin her around. Melina looked bemused, but her eyes were shining as she let Jamie toss her about.  
  
Pretty soon, they were both into the music and performing ridiculous dance moves with one another. They did a mock-tango, Melina had done a weird version of the robot, Jamie held Melina in a dramatic dip, and at one point Jane and Regina joined in to form an extremely uncoordinated Rockettes-style kick-line.  
  
By the time they were finished, both of their faces were flushed red and they were both completely out of breath. They decided to retire to one of the tables near the back of the room.  
  
“Remind me to never do that again,” Jamie said, flopping her head onto the table with an audible thud.  
  
“No promises,” Melina said.  
  
“This table is very comfortable, I think I might sleep here,” Jamie joked, closing her eyes.  
  


When Jamie woke up, she found herself not pressed into a hard-metallic table, but a soft and cushiony pillow. She raised her head and looked around at her surroundings in panic before realizing she was in Melina’s bedroom.  
  
Melina was passed out next to her, though the fact that their bodies were not touching at all was a testament to just how big Melina’s bed actually was. Jamie laid back onto the pillow and tried to remember how she had gotten there. There was a huge gap in her brain from where the party ended, and waking up somewhere else entirely.  
  
She turned her head back to look at Melina, who still somehow managed to look radiant, even as she slept. Jamie resisted the urge to trace her fingers over her face. She turned to the clock sitting on the bedside drawer to see that it was ten in the morning. Jamie was so glad that she didn’t have work today, that would have been a nightmare to explain to her boss.  
  
She blew out a breath, and climbed out of bed.

Melina woke about an hour later, to see that Jamie was not in bed anymore. She grabbed her robe, and quickly skipped downstairs.  
  
“I made you coffee,” Jamie announced, emerging from the kitchen. “And maybe in exchange you can explain to me what the hell happened last night,” she said, holding out the mug.  
  
Melina took it gratefully and chugged half of it in one go.  
  
“Well, you got a bit drunk and decided to go crazy on the dance floor, not that I’m complaining,” Melina said with a grin. “And then the alcohol and fatigue caught up with you at once and you passed out on a table,” Melina explained with a shrug.  
  
“Yeah, but how the hell did we get back home? I don’t remember anything,” Jamie said, furrowing her brow as she tried once again to retrieve the missing memory.  
“I carried you,” Melina said. Jamie’s raised an eyebrow.  
  
“You. Carried me?” Jamie asked, looking over her girlfriend’s tiny body.  
  
“I never said it was easy,” Melina defended. “And you may have some bruises because I accidentally knocked you into a wall on the way back to the house. But yes, I carried you.”  
  
Jamie let out a snort as she tried to imagine the ridiculous image. But as the seconds went on, the hilarity of the situation died down and Jamie just found the whole thing rather endearing.  
  
And maybe it was the hang-over, or the fatigue, or just the entire situation but Jamie found her lips moving before her brain could catch up.  
  
“I love you.”  
  
Melina, who was about to take another sip of her coffee, slammed the mug down with a bang as her eyes shot up to meet Jamie’s. Jamie was worried she had done something wrong, or spoke too soon, as she felt her stomach plummet.  
  
“Do you mean that?” Melina asked, her voice suddenly sounding like a young child.  
  
“Of course I do,” Jamie said, not moving her eyes away from Melina for a moment. Not even to blink. “Melina, you are the most wonderful, ridiculous and captivating person I have ever met,” Jamie declared, taking Melina’s arm into her hand. “I think there would be something wrong with me if I didn’t love you.”  
  
Melina let out a startled laugh at that.  
  
“I love you, too,” Melina said, and her voice sounded so relieved. As if these were the words she’d been longing to say for a lifetime.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *football coach voice* what's better than this? gals being in love.  
> one chapter left!!! we've reached the endgame, folks
> 
> as always, jimhuttonlesbian.tumblr.com is where I spend all my time, come hang out! love you.


	14. an amazing feeling coming through, i was born to love you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which we finally see a wedding, but it’s not the one people have been hoping for

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> its the finale, babey!!
> 
> am I one hundred percent happy with how this chapter turned out? No.  
> Am I putting it out into the world, anyways? Yep!

THREE MONTHS LATER  
  
Jamie and Melina got into the rental car and took off down the road. Jamie told Melina to put on whatever music she wanted. Melina searched through several radio stations, only listening for a couple seconds at a time before switching again. After about twenty different stations, she slammed the power button and the car fell silent.  
  
Jamie snuck a quick glance over and saw that Melina was fidgeting with the hem of her dress, and looked dangerously close to ripping the edges. She forced her eyes to look back at the road, and furrowed her brows.  
  
“Are you,” she began, the words she was about to say sounding ridiculous even before she could say them aloud. “Are you _nervous_?”  
  
Melina did not answer right away, but another quick glance told Jamie that she was right on the mark. Honestly, how ridiculous. This was the same woman she watched get up on stage in front of thousands of people and do a barrel roll during an epic guitar solo. Whilst not wearing pants.  
  
The idea that that same person could be afraid to go to a wedding of maybe a hundred people at most seemed ridiculous. And at the same time, it was so Melina it was almost endearing.  
  
Jamie took one of her hands off the wheel, and gripped Melina’s with it tightly.  
  
“Listen to me, there is nothing to be nervous about. My mother hasn’t even met you and she already loves you. My sister is going to be so thrilled that you are here. And if you want, I can shield everyone from talking to you. You can be as silent as you want,” she vowed.  
  
Melina just took a shuddery breath and kept her eyes on the road ahead.  
  


When the two reached the venue, Melina saw an older woman standing outside the door, waving frantically at them. Jamie parked the car, and walked over to her. Melina could only assume this was her mother. The family resemblance was uncanny.  
  
“It’s good to see you again,” she said, embracing her daughter in a hug. When she let go, her eyes roamed over to Melina.  
  
“You must be Melina,” she greeted, holding her arms out for a hug, as well. Melina looked startled for a moment but reciprocated, standing on her toes to reach the taller woman. “I know we’ve talked a bit on the phone but it’s good to finally meet you. I’ve heard enough about you to feel like I know you already,” she greeted.   
  
Jamie’s face flushed slightly as she tried to wave her mother off.  
  
“Why are you waiting outside?” Jamie asked, peering over her mother’s shoulder at the front door of the chapel.  
  
“Oh, it’s just a bit stuffy in there,” her mother explained. “Honestly, your sister has always been the calm one but she’s been practically catatonic in the last twenty-four hours. I’ve never seen her so worked up before.” Jamie’s mother shook her head.  
  
“Well, we’re going to head in,” Jamie waved, and tugged on Melina’s hand.  
  
“Don’t forget to have Melina sit near the end, so Aileen won’t notice her!” Her mother cried as the entered the building.  
  
The chapel was gorgeous, with stained-glass windows adorning every side of the room, and the ceiling. Most of the rows had filled, and Melina kept her head down as she walked, trying to avoid anybody recognizing her and starting a scene before the wedding could even start.  
  
She was successful and Jamie sat down at the second row, Melina shuffling over her knees to sit to her right, angled away from where the bride and groom would be looking during the ceremony. She picked up the program that was laid out, and scanned through the information about the event. As she read, she heard Jamie greet another one of her siblings. They stood up to hug one another and the man chatted idly about how he had been, asking Jamie the same.  
  
“And I haven’t met your friend yet,” he said, reaching around Jamie to offer Melina his hand. “My name’s Jacob.” Melina looked up from the pamphlet and offered her hand, as well.  
  
“Melina,” she said with a simple smile. She felt the hand around hers tighten and knew he had recognized her.  
  
“Why is Melina Mercury here?” Jacob whispered in a voice that probably wasn’t as quiet as he thought it was.  
  
“She’s going to sing during the reception,” Jamie explained, not about to come out to her brother just five minutes before the wedding was supposed to start.  Jacob’s eyes widened as he snuck another peek at Melina, who waved back at him. Jacob shrunk back, embarrassed at being caught.  
  


The five minutes came and went, and suddenly a loud church organ began blaring Pachelbel’s Canon. Everyone rose out of their seat as the groom came down the aisle with the Priest.  
  
Melina had never even seen this man before, but she could sense the anxiety rolling off of him in waves. If he didn’t calm down soon, he was going to sweat right through his suit jacket.  
  
Everyone turned as the door opened again, and Aileen Hutton began walking down the aisle, accompanied by a man who Melina could only assume was another one of Jamie’s brothers. She looked beautiful. She had gone with a very traditionally-styled dress, which flowed elegantly down to her feet as if it were liquid.   
  
Melina could sense the happiness radiating from her entire body, and grinned to herself.  
  
The groom, who Melina had learned from the helpful pamphlet was named Aaron, looked at her as if she held all the answers to the universe in her eyes. The way he watched her made Melina feel as if she should look away, the moment feeling all too private.  
  
Aileen finally reached the end of the aisle, and her hands met Aaron’s in the middle as they turned to face each other.  
  
“We are gathered here today to celebrate the love of Miss Aileen Catherine Hutton and Mister Aaron Richard Brennan. If there is anyone present who has just cause why this couple should not be united, let them speak now or forever hold their peace.”  
  
The room fell silent, and Melina wondered just why the hell this was still included in wedding ceremonies. As if anyone were to show up to the wedding and sit around for half an hour before making a dramatic proclamation and halting the entire process. Seriously, what kinds of lives were these people living? Was there any time that this proclamation was necessary, other than in bad romance films?  
  
“I would now ask that everyone bow their heads in prayer,” the Priest said after no one stepped forwards. Melina heard a soft shuffling as everyone shifted in their seats. She bowed her head down and closed her eyes.  
  
“Lord God Almighty, thank you for bringing all of us here today. Thank you for blessing Aaron and Aileen with the love they have for each other, and the love that we have for them both. We pray that you look after their marriage, and that you bless the both as they begin their journey together. May you keep them always safe. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.” A chorus of Amens rang out through the room and everyone lifted their heads. “Aileen,” the Priest began, turning his head towards the bride. “Will you honor this man as your lawfully wedded husband, as long as you both shall live?”  
  
“I will,” Aileen said, her voice resolute.  
  
“Aaron. Will you honor this woman as your lawfully wedded wife, as long as you both shall live?” The Priest repeated.  
  
“I will.”  
  
“You may now take your seats,” the Priest informed the audience.  
  
Ten minutes into the ceremony, Melina felt Jamie grip her hand tightly, and looked up in alarm to see that she had begun crying. Melina began rubbing soothing circles into her girlfriend’s palm with her thumb as she tried to understand why her girlfriend had become so emotional. Was it just because she was proud of her sister?  
  
“By the power given to me by the law of Ireland, I now pronounce you Husband and Wife. You may kiss the bride,” The Priest said, smiling for the first time during entire ceremony. Aileen grabbed Aaron by the lapels and surged forwards, causing some scattered laughs throughout the audience.  
  
The newlyweds let go of one another, and began waving to everybody as they made their journey back down the aisle, together as one this time.  
  
“Alright, now all we gotta do is get you to sing the opening song, and we’re good to go,” Jamie said in a whisper as they two of them stood up and stretched their legs. Melina let her pretend that neither had noticed that she had been crying just a moment ago.  
  
“That’s what I’m least worried about,” Melina said, raising her arms above her head as several of her joints cracked. “We all know I’m going to crush that part.”  
  


Jamie directed Melina to the room hidden behind the reception hall, a place she could hide out where no one could hound her.  
  
“I’ll see you on the other side,” Jamie promised, pressing a quick kiss to her forehead.  
  
She made her way down to the family table, sitting in between Jacob and her mother. Her mother grinned at her daughter, the excitement palpable on her face.  
  
“It is now time for the Bride and Groom to begin their first dance as a wedded couple. The Bride has requested that the first song be ‘You Take My Breath Away’ by the band King.” Something about hearing the words aloud caused a jolt of adrenaline to surge through Jamie’s body. She genuinely wasn’t sure how her sister was going to react, and she hoped everything went to plan.  
  
The DJ pressed a button on his equipment, and a single piano began playing softly. Aileen held onto Aaron tightly as they began shuffling around the dance floor, barely moving their feet as they swayed along. Jamie could feel her chest tightening as she held her breath, knowing that the piano solo could only last so long. She saw Melina step out onto the stage from the corner of her eye, and noted that Aileen hadn’t noticed yet, so engulfed in the dance she was doing.  
  
And then Melina began singing.  
  
Aileen still hadn’t noticed, which Jamie just assumed was a testament to how Melina was able to sound just like her album recordings, but after several lines of the song even she began to realize something was up. She picked her head off of Aaron’s shoulder and craned her head to look at the stage.  
  
Aileen stopped moving, her eyes conveying her shock as she looked back and forth from her husband to Melina, singing on the stage. Then she began laughing, and Melina looked up, waving a hand as she continued crooning along.  
  
A couple of other people in the audience began gasping in shock, and whispers broke out. People all turning to watch Melina instead of the couple. Jamie could hear that her sister had begun frantically giggling and Aaron was watching her reaction with absolute glee. Aileen just shook her head, unsure of how to move forwards, but continued the dance, this time with a little more excitement in her step. Jamie’s shoulders sagged inwards in relief as she took in the happy scene. It was only then that she allowed herself to actually engulf her mind into the performance.  
  
It was like falling in love all over again.  
  
Melina’s vocals were much softer than what Jamie had heard at any of her concerts. Her voice glided through a soft falsetto, and she spoke so quietly that it felt like a whisper. By all means, no one should have been able to hear her, but they could. Jamie closed her eyes as she listened to the lyrics, and allowed them to sink into her.  
  
_Anywhere you go, I’ll be right behind you, right until the ends of the Earth. I’ll get no sleep until I find you to tell you that you just take my breath away  
_  
And that was how Jamie found herself crying for the second time that day, the emotion in the air just completely overwhelming her. She looked through blurry eyes to see that she was not alone, either. Aileen was now openly weeping on the dance floor, and her mother didn’t seem to be in much better of a state.  
  
The song ended and people stood up with applause, including the bride and groom, the latter of which was still looking shell-shocked. Jamie looked around and was pretty sure at least a third of the room didn’t even know who Melina was and probably just assumed that she was a particularly good wedding singer.  
  
Melina took a slight bow, and made her way off of the stage, and out a back door. She turned to make quick eye-contact with Jamie, who nodded to let her know she’d be out in a bit. The entire room seemed to freeze for a moment, no one knowing how to follow such a performance up.  
  
“Okay,” Aileen cried out, a laugh in her voice. “Who the hell got Melina Mercury into my wedding? I know it sure as hell wasn’t you,” she pointed a finger at Aaron.  
  
The room laughed.  
  
Several fingers, including her mothers, pointed at Jamie, who shrunk down a bit. The DJ had already begun playing a new song and people began running onto the dance floor as Aileen ran off of it and over to her sister.  
  
“How did you do it?” she squealed, engulfing Jamie into a bear-hug. Jamie gladly returned the hug, both of their tears staining the other’s outfits. “Please tell me you didn’t pay a bunch of money for this. It’s too much,” she said.  
  
“Jamie and Melina are _friends_ ,” her mother cut in, leaning across the table in a conspiratory voice that suggested just what she thought of the last word. “They met over in London.”  
  
Aileen’s eyes widened more than they already had.  
  
“My own sister knows Melina Mercury and didn’t tell me,” her voice turned into mock-accusation. “After this wedding, you need to tell me everything,” she pointed a finger, before joining her husband back on the dance floor.  
  
“You two’re dating, aren’t you?” Jacob asked as they watched their sister’s retreating form. Jamie, too overwhelmed to even think about lying, began to nod her head frantically, her eyes still watery.  
  
“God, I love her so much,” Jamie said, shaking her head, sure that she had never truly understood what those words meant until that very moment. “And if you excuse me, I’m going to go find her, and tell her that.” She nodded at her brother, who was looking at her with a curious expression on his face. Her mother, who was openly weeping, smiled back at her as she left the table.  
  
“From the looks of those two, I think we may need to plan for another wedding pretty soon,” her mother turned to Jacob as soon as Jamie was out of earshot.  
  


Jamie snaked herself around the mass of writhing bodies on the dance floor as she followed out the door Melina exited through. The door lead to a back hallway and Jamie tracked it down until it took her to the back of the Church. She could see Melina leaning against one of the support beams, smoking a cigarette. Though where she was able to store it with no pockets in her dress was anybody’s guess.  
  
Melina hadn’t seen Jamie yet, and Jamie rubbed furiously at her eyes until they were sufficiently dry. She stepped outside, and walked over to Melina, wrapping her arms around her.  
  
“Hello,” Melina said with a bit of a laugh. “Miss me?”  
  
Jamie didn’t respond and kept herself latched onto her girlfriend for several moments. Melina leaned into her and the two just sat there, watching the sun go down.  
  
“Do you wanna get out of here?” Jamie asked. “Maybe we could go grab some dinner before someone from the party tracks us down to interrogate me. Or you, more realistically.”  
  
Melina looked at her for a long moment.  
  
“Lead the way.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow lets play a game… how many parallels to the first chapter can you spot lol 
> 
> But anyways, thank you to anyone who stuck around for this. It’s been a lot of fun and is the longest thing I’ve ever written, by a long shot.  
> I’ve got a shorter thing planned for what would serve as sort of a sequel to this fic? I have a fair amount of it all written out, but it may take me a bit longer to get that posted than it usually does for me to update? Again, thank you so much. Some of you have left the sweetest comments and I treasure every single one of them. I hope you’ve enjoyed this journey, and I’ll see you soon! 
> 
> (and again feel free to talk to me at jimhuttonlesbian.tumblr.com, about my fic or really anything!)


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